Gavin Newsom nominates Scott Galloway to UC Board of Regents

Gavin Newsom has nominated Scott Galloway for a powerful California education board despite him brutally branding Los Angeles the world’s “most successful failed nation state.”

Galloway, an entrepreneur, NYU professor and podcaster who has emerged as something of a “left-wing Joe Rogan figure,” was appointed Wednesday to the University of California Board of Regents.

If confirmed by the California Senate, the Florida resident will help oversee the sprawling 10-campus UC system and its roughly 300,000 students as a member of the 26-person board, according to Politico.

Galloway has hardly held back when it comes to California.

The UCLA alum recently went viral for his savage assessment of Los Angeles, dubbing the city the world’s “most successful failed nation state.”

“This is a city where you can be waiting in line with a Saudi Prince, a hedge fund manager, a failed actor and a TikTok star, and you’re all in line for the same $24 smoothie,” Galloway quipped.

The “Notes on Being a Man” author painted the city as a bizarre combination of staggering wealth, homelessness, influencers and faded Hollywood glory, describing the city as “peak capitalism.”

“The city is run on delusion,” Galloway declared. “But delusion plus ambition can create a lot of shareholder value.”

He also delivered a brutal punchline about the crushing cost of living in the City of Angels.

“I would describe it as absolutely the best city in the world to make a living — as long as you don’t need the money.” Still, Galloway’s relationship with California is more love-hate than outright hostility.

He’s called Los Angeles his “favorite place to visit in the world” and heaped praise on his alma mater, UCLA, calling it “the finest public institution in the world.”

Galloway has also aimed his fire on the very world of higher education he will now help govern.

On a Chronicle of Higher Education podcast in March, he accused some elite universities of making a “concerted effort to sequester supply” by hiking tuition and keeping enrollment low, and suggested such schools should lose their tax-exempt status.

But he carved out an exception for California’s public university system, praising the UC system as one of the institutions “doing God’s work” to expand access through larger first-year classes and summer and night classes.

Galloway, a Democrat, has also become a prominent voice on the loneliness and isolation facing young men — an issue Newsom has increasingly put on his political agenda.

The governor last year signed an executive order aimed at addressing rising suicide rates and disconnection among young men and boys in California.

Galloway co-hosts a popular tech and business podcast with Kara Swisher and has founded several companies in consulting and digital research.

He’s served on the boards of Urban Outfitters, Panera Bread and The New York Times.

Despite now living in Florida, his ties to the UC system run deep.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA and an MBA from UC Berkeley and has donated heavily to both schools, including $12 million for students pursuing nontraditional pathways and $4.4 million to UC Berkeley for a fellowship supporting students from immigrant families.

Newsom also tapped sports executive Doug Hendrickson — a Democrat from Kentfield — for a seat on the California State University Board of Trustees.

Hendrickson, executive vice president at The Team and a San Jose State University graduate, previously held senior football roles at Independent Sports & Entertainment and Octagon.

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