It is into this moment that USC Marshall’s VanEck Digital Assets Initiative (VEDA) welcomes Lan Luo, the Neely Chair in American Enterprise and professor of marketing at USC Marshall, as its new director, effective July 1, 2026. That combination of scholarly rigor, industry experience, and institutional engagement aligns closely with VEDA’s core strategy of bridging rigorous academic research with real-world industry engagement. As director, Luo will guide the initiative with a focus on three defining priorities: industry practitioner engagement, academic thought leadership, and global outreach. On the industry side, VEDA will continue to bring leading digital asset practitioners directly into the USC ecosystem through conferences, workshops, and mentorship. Academically, Luo aims to deepen the initiative’s research footprint across blockchain systems, tokenized finance, decentralized infrastructure, and digital markets.