Margaret Woolley Busse was appointed by Governor Spencer Cox in January 2021 to serve as a member of his cabinet as the Executive Director of Utah’s Department of Commerce. Thus far in her tenure, she has worked on regulatory reform, streamlining the regulatory process, and reducing regulatory fees. Specifically, she worked with legislative partners to create the new Office of Professional Licensure Review (OPLR). The first of its kind in the nation, OPLR takes a systematic approach to reviewing Utah’s professional licensing regulation in order to find ways to reduce the licensure burden as well as increase access and decrease cost for consumers of professionally licensed services. OPLR’s first review resulted in the passage of a groundbreaking new law that will vastly increase Utah’s behavioral health workforce through regulatory reform in order to address Utah’s mental health crisis.
In addition, Ms. Busse is leading efforts to create streamlined pathways for foreign-credentialed immigrants and refugees to obtain professional licenses, enabling them to work at their trained skill level here in Utah.
Under the direction of Governor Cox, Director Busse has played a key role in holding social media platforms accountable for their harm to minors by helping to craft appropriate legislative measures and through the Department of Commerce's lawsuits against TikTok and Meta. Under her leadership, the Department of Commerce published proposed rules for age verification and parental consent to operationalize Utah's groundbreaking new social media law, which the department is charged with enforcing.
Finally, in partnership with Utah’s legislative leadership, Ms. Busse is driving forward an innovative approach to artificial intelligence that will help Utah to ensure it is protecting the public, encouraging innovation, and enabling it to observe and learn about how to regulate effectively. The approach includes the creation of the new Office of Artificial Intelligence (OIAP), which is tasked with both providing regulatory relief to qualifying AI-focused companies and making regulatory policy recommendations through its policy learning lab.
Ms. Busse serves as a member of the One U Responsible Artificial Intelligence External Advisor Committee and a member of the Talent Ready Utah Board. In 2024, she was named a Most Influential Woman by Utah Business Magazine, was the recipient of the Cyber Pioneer Award from the Utah Bar Association, was a finalist for 2024 Utah Women in Tech award, and awarded RevRoad’s Championing Women in Business recognition.
Before her appointment to Commerce, Ms. Busse was an adjunct faculty member for BYU’s Political Science Department and an advisor to social impact organizations. Ms. Busse also served for several years as the Associate Director of the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard Business School, where she developed an alumni impact investing program and worked on issues such as the future of work, opportunity, prosperity for all, and educational improvement. In addition, Ms. Busse worked as a strategy consultant at the Bridgespan Group and spent several years at the U.S. Treasury Department as a Presidential Management Fellow. Ms. Busse developed her passion for public service by serving for many years in leadership roles in local government.
Ms. Busse is the recipient of Utah Business’s 2024 Most Influential Women award, Women Tech Council’s 2024 Women in Tech Award finalist, and the Utah Bar Association’s 2024 Cyber Pioneer Award. She holds an MBA from Harvard University, a master’s degree in Public Policy from Brigham Young University, and a bachelor’s degree in both Public Policy and Economics from Brigham Young University, where she graduated cum laude and with university honors. She is a Utah native, and she and her husband, Franz, have five children, ages 11 to 21.
