Margot Machol

Margot E. Machol (also known as Margot Machol Bisnow) is an American author and former United States government official. She is author of Raising an Entrepreneur: 10 Rules for Nurturing Risk Takers, Problem Solvers, and Change Makers. She is also a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and a former chief-of-staff of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Machol has an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BA from Northwestern University.

Machol's book, Raising an Entrepreneur (New Harbinger 2016), is based on interviews with a highly diverse group of 60 entrepreneurs and their parents, identifying common ways in which the children were raised that allowed them successfully to follow their dreams. In addition, Machol argues that while it has become increasingly difficult to find jobs after college, it has become much easier to create modestly-financed startups. She therefore urges parents to help their children identify passions, consider building their own for-profit or non-profit organizations around them, and recognize that such an entrepreneurial career path may be more fulfilling and ultimately more financially rewarding than conventional employment.

Machol also served as a commissioner of the National Commission on Employment Policy; as the first chief of staff of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an agency launched by President Bush to place foreign aid on a more businesslike basis; and as staff director of the National H.E.L.P. Commission to advise the Administration and Congress on the future of United States foreign aid.

Machol is married to digital media entrepreneur Mark Bisnow. They have two children, Summit Series founder Elliott Bisnow, and Magic Giant lead singer Austin Bisnow.