Margo has over 30 years of experience building innovative solutions for underserved communities. Margo has been instrumental in TEPRI’s growth, helping conceptualize and launch TEPRI in 2014 and then serving as a member of the TEPRI Board, before serving in her current role as Executive Director.
Prior to TEPRI, Margo was a founding Partner at City Lights Group, a strategic consulting firm where she focused on the nexus of entrepreneurship, social mission, and community development. Working with private and public sector clients, she created strategic roadmaps, devised revenue and capital models, and conceptualized new impact programs.
Margo’s background is in community development finance. She was a founder and CEO at PeopleFund, a statewide CDFI. Under her 16-year leadership, PeopleFund grew to a nationally recognized and award-winning CDFI. To date, PeopleFund has invested more than $250 million in underserved communities of Texas.
Margo has also served as an adjunct professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has taught graduate level courses on designing effective community initiatives and impact investing.
A champion of innovative ideas, Margo has authored numerous editorials and reports, including the chapter Small Business and Entrepreneurship for “The NEXT American Opportunity: Good Policies for a Great America.” She has provided leadership on national and local boards, served as Chairwoman for the Austin Mayor’s Small Business Task Force, and served as a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism in Finance/Banking. Margo currently sits on the State’s Aggregated DER Task Force.
Margo has received extensive recognition for her work, including the Exceptional Executive Leadership Award (Austin Community Foundation); “Profiles in Power” winner (Austin Business Journal); Social Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young); and “Austinite of the Year.”