Margo Weisz focuses on the nexus of entrepreneurship and social mission. She works with private and public sector clients to create strategic roadmaps, devise revenue and capital models, and conceptualize new social impact programs.

Prior to co-founding City Lights Group, Margo was a founder and the Executive Director at PeopleFund, an impact investment fund for small business and social ventures.  Under her 15-year leadership, PeopleFund grew to a nationally recognized CDFI and thought leader on economic opportunity, housing, and social entrepreneurship.  She received extensive recognition for her work, including: 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”.

To date, PeopleFund has invested more than $40 million in underserved communities.

Margo has 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 courses on designing effective community initiatives and impact investing.

A champion of innovative ideas, Margo has provided leadership on national and local boards, including the National CDFI Coalition and the Texas Association of Community Development Corporations. She currently serves as Treasurer and Secretary on the Boards of Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute (TEPRI) and AustinUP, nonprofits she conceptualized and helped launch through City Lights Group.  Margo served as Chairwoman for the Austin Mayor’s Small Business Task Force, and as a member of the Mayor’s Task Force to Address Institutional Racism in Finance and Banking. She also served as Event Chair and organizer for the ATX Aging and Innovation Summit with Dell Medical School.

Margo gets her inspiration from daily walks on the greenbelt, long conversations over deep cups of coffee, large hanging trees, a good laugh, sharing stories with friends on the screened porch, food, poetry and music.  She and her husband, professor/architect Gregory Brooks, are the parents of 12-year-old Ben.

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