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Margo Markopoulos, Liaison Director

Margo Markopoulos was named Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce Office of Trade and Investment in November 2015. As the Office Director, Margo leads the Department’s strategies to increase exports by Illinois companies and to attract Foreign Direct Investment to the state. As Export Program Director since 2012, Margo manages five regional trade specialists based in Chicago and 22 employees located in Illinois’ ten foreign offices. During her eight years at the Department of Commerce, she has also managed the Illinois State Trade and Export Promotion (ISTEP) program and has assisted over 500 Illinois companies with expanding their global footprint through exports.

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Margo worked for the Governor’s Office in Consular Affairs, where she planned numerous gubernatorial trade missions, including the State of Illinois’ historic humanitarian mission to Cuba in 1999. This mission brought the first sitting U.S. Governor to the island in over four decades.

Margo also previously worked as an Expatriate-Repatriate Policy Consultant for Fortune 500 corporations, and she managed foreign business delegations to encourage bilateral trade.

Margo received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois in Chicago and is a certified International Protocol consultant. Since 2003, Margo has been a member of Children’s Service Board of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and is active in several international trade organizations. She also currently serves as coordinator of the Governor’s Export Advisory Council, which is comprised of business and public leaders from around the state. Margo is a native of Illinois and resides in Chicago with her husband.

Margo can be reached at: margo.markopoulos@illinois.gov.