Austin Berg is the executive director of the Chicago Policy Center and vice president of marketing for the Illinois Policy Institute. He is also co-founder of Iron Light, a marketing agency helping purpose-driven brands change the world.

He and his work have been featured in the Economist, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. He is the winner of two Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club for his photojournalism work, and was honored as one of Chicago’s “20 in their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business. Iron Light in 2023 and 2024 was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., and in 2025 won the Reed Award for “Public Affairs Firm of the Year” from Campaigns & Elections.

Austin is the co-author of “The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities,” published in 2019 by Southern Illinois University Press. He is also the writer of the 2016 documentary film, “Madigan: Power. Privilege. Politics.”

He is a graduate of Tufts University.