USC Marshall names Alexis Fink to lead its Center for Effective Organizations

The USC Marshall School of Business has named technology and people-analytics veteran Alexis Fink, PhD, director of its Center for Effective Organizations. The move strengthens the center’s push into AI, organization design and workplace transformation as companies rethink how work gets done.

Why it matters: - USC Marshall is adding an executive with deep experience in technology, people analytics, and organizational change to lead applied research and advisory work. - The appointment comes as companies are trying to adapt organization design, leadership, and workforce strategy to AI. - The move strengthens the center’s ability to connect academic research with practical guidance for large organizations.

What happened: - The Center for Effective Organizations at the USC Marshall School of Business named Alexis Fink, PhD, as its new director. - Fink most recently served as vice president of people analytics and workforce strategy at Meta. - Her prior leadership roles also included senior positions at Microsoft, Intel, and BASF. - Fink will oversee the center’s applied research and advisory work across organization design, organizational transformation, the future of work, strategic resource groups, and AI.

The details: - The Center for Effective Organizations said Fink will expand its focus on AI and transformation. - Alec Levenson, senior research scientist at CEO, said analytical insight only creates impact when it is grounded in a rigorous understanding of how change happens inside organizations. - Levenson said Fink brings the integration of research and practice at a time when AI is changing how data-driven insight, organization design, and organizational change intersect. - Fink said her new role is a natural next step after three decades leading through technology-driven change in large organizations. - Fink said CEO’s combination of rigorous research and on-the-ground application, along with its focus on strategic organization design, drew her to the role. - Fink said she looks forward to helping organizations understand what AI means for the future of work. - Fink has written books including Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives and Employee Surveys and Sensing: Driving Organizational Culture and Performance. - Fink is past president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, a SIOP Fellow, and a recipient of SIOP’s Distinguished Service Award. - Fink leads the People Analytics Board at the Institute for Corporate Productivity and has served for years as an affiliated research scientist at CEO. - Fink earned her PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Old Dominion University. - CEO said it has advised Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies and other large organizations for more than 45 years. - CEO was founded in 1979 and is part of the USC Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. - CEO’s core areas of expertise are Organization Design, Transformation, Strategic Resource Groups, and Humans at Work. - The center’s worldwide network includes research scientists, faculty experts, best-selling authors, and corporate partners. - More information on CEO’s research and advisory work is available here. - CEO also shared a LinkedIn page: the center’s LinkedIn profile.

Between the lines: - The hire signals that CEO is leaning harder into applied AI strategy, not just traditional organization design. - Fink’s background combines enterprise-scale analytics with change management, which fits a center that wants to advise leaders on how work, structure, and technology interact. - The appointment also suggests CEO is using a practitioner leader to reinforce its role as a bridge between academic research and business execution.

What's next: - Fink is expected to guide CEO’s research, advisory, and executive education offerings as organizations continue to redesign work around AI and transformation. - CEO said it will keep building its support for leaders facing organization design and future-of-work challenges.