LOS ANGELES — USC athletic director Mike Bohn has resigned from his position, The Los Angeles Times has learned.
Bohn’s resignation comes a day after The Times asked him and USC about internal criticism of his management of the athletics department.
In a statement provided to The Times in response to those questions, Bohn said that he will “always be proud of leading the program out of the most tumultuous times in the history of the profession.”
"In moving on, it is important now that I focus on being present with my treasured family, addressing ongoing health challenges, and reflecting on how I can be impactful in the future," Bohn said in the statement.
USC did not immediately announce who would serve as interim athletic director, following his resignation.
University president Carol Folt said in a letter to the USC community announcing Bohn's resignation that the university had "conducted a thorough review of the athletics department, including its operation, culture and strategy" ahead of USC's impending transition to the Big Ten conference.
The university retained Gina Maisto Smith, a Philadelphia-based attorney from Cozen O'Connor, earlier this year to conduct that review, according to multiple people who attended a meeting earlier this year where the review was announced.
During the meeting, USC general counsel Beong-Soo Kim told attendees the review wasn't targeting a specific person, but instead was meant to ensure the department had a work environment that was compliant with university policy. Smith began interviewing members of the department in March.
Cozen O'Connor describes Smith on its website as "the founder of the nation's first practice dedicated to the institutional response to sexual and gender-based harassment, violence, child abuse, elder abuse, other forms of discrimination and harassment, workplace misconduct, and criminal conduct" and also "performs culture and implementation assessments."
Smith's past work includes high-profile investigations into the handling of sexual harassment and misconduct at Baylor, Virginia and Colorado. Her Institutional Response Group was recently retained by the Cal State university system to investigate its response to a series of scandals involving sexual misconduct, harassment and retaliation.
Four current and former USC employees said that staffers inside the athletics department had raised concerns to the law firm about Bohn.
Bohn was hired in Nov. 2019 after a decade of turmoil and scandal within USC athletics.
At the time, Folt hailed Bohn as a man of integrity, the ideal sort of athletic director to guide USC out of a dark era. Over the past 18 months, USC had hired a nationally renowned head football coach in Lincoln Riley and announced a stunning move to the Big Ten Conference. In between, Bohn was recognized in March 2022 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) as one of the top administrators in the nation, the first time a USC administrator has ever earned athletic director of the year honors.
In her letter, Folt said that USC's athletic department had "transformed into a national powerhouse" during Bohn's four-year tenure.
That tenure ended Friday amid questions about Bohn and his leadership.
