Record label founder and DJ, Zack Bia will deliver the keynote address at the USC Iovine and Young Academy’s 2026 commencement ceremony. 

Zack has been many things — club promoter, streetwear innovator, speaker at Harvard Business School, Trojan — but he is currently the CEO of Field Trip Recordings, where he has signed an impressive portfolio of artists including rap superstar Yeat, producer BNYX®, and live streaming entertainer PlaqueBoyMax. While working as a club promoter in LA, Zack caught the attention of fellow Trojan, John Terzian ‘02. Terzian brought Zack under The h.wood Group, a hospitality and lifestyle company that specializes in upscale nightlife and restaurant venues. There, Zack gained steady experience in hospitality, brand-building and experiential business models. He became known for hosting and DJ-ing private events which quickly expanded his network to put him into the orbit of some of the most culturally influential people in Hollywood.

Building that network was just the beginning for Zack. His creative interests spanned more than just the vibrancy of Los Angeles’s nightlife. He was interested in fashion, art and especially music. His DJ career sky-rocketed, including touring with global superstars Post Malone and then Drake for many years as their opening acts, living and breathing music with artists and holding a Las Vegas residency at the Wynn. He was making career-changing connections, finding the right artists at the right time and connecting them with others. It seemed like a natural progression for Zack to strike out on his own label with Field Trip Recordings. By combining his natural talent for bringing people together with his creative endeavors, Zack has been able to nurture his entrepreneurial roots and create an artist-first, independent record label that’s “fueled by passion and the desire to reimagine what it means to be a music company”.

In a 2022 interview with Complex, Zack laid out his plans for Field Trip: “I want Field Trip to be the next Interscope. But I want to figure out a new way of doing things, because we have new tools and resources that people didn’t have before, and we get to start from scratch. We don’t have to conform to any model.”

Since starting Field Trip, Zack has collaborated with Asics, Nike and Beats by Dre. Releases under the label have accumulated billions of streams and include Yeat’s 7 top ten Billboard charting albums: the most of any artists to debut this decade. He released his own EP, Learn to Fly, showcasing collaborations with Lil Yachty, Don Toliver, and more. He has continued collaborating with his personal friends, including his brother Elan Bia ‘22, a fellow Trojan, on various projects. Field Trip has remained an independent record label that signs artists through joint ventures with various other partners. Zack’s collaborative spirit, rooted in the genuine interest of art and community, has been key to his success as a cultural tastemaker, innovator and founder.

“As a young entrepreneur who has carved street-level paths through well-established industries, Zack represents a future of adaptability, collaboration, and raw hustle that Academy students are graduating into and well-equipped for,” said Josh Kun, interim dean of USC Iovine and Young Academy. “We’re thrilled to welcome such a creative multi-hyphenate who will inspire our students as they set their own unique, post-collegiate paths.”

Zack Bia Announced as USC Iovine and Young Academy 2026 Commencement Speaker