Kristin Richards

Kristin Richards is the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). In this capacity, Richards oversees DCEO’s mission to create a positive economic climate to attract job creators, support Illinois’ skilled workforce, and bolster communities to provide opportunities for all Illinoisans. DCEO’s diverse portfolio includes leading the state’s business development efforts, creating unique tourism campaigns to showcase Illinois’ destinations, deploying state and federal funding to improve internet connectivity in underserved areas, and managing more than $10 billion in programs and grants that invest in community infrastructure and community assets.

As Director, Richards has partnered with the Office of the Governor and state legislature to pass sweeping enhancements to state incentives that support business attraction and development. She helps invest in programs that support Illinois’ position as the #1 state for workforce in the Midwest, and co-chairs the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board. Richards has grown DCEO’s footprint during a period of unprecedented economic vitality for the State.

Richards has spent more than two decades in government where she has garnered a reputation for solving complex issues and working closely with stakeholders to forge strong coalitions. In August of 2020, Governor Pritzker appointed her Director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), the state agency responsible for administering federal and state unemployment insurance programs and reemployment services for dislocated workers. In this role, Richards led the state’s pandemic response for Illinoisans affected by job loss. She oversaw the provisioning of $40 billion in benefits to support Illinois’ households and stood up state and federal programs to deliver benefits to eligible Illinoisans. Richards successfully executed an agreement between business and labor that set a strong fiscal foundation for the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund.

Richards held various leadership roles in the executive and legislative branches, including as Chief of Staff to two Senate presidents. In her time with the Illinois Senate, she helped lead the state’s budget-making process for seven consecutive years, and bipartisan negotiations that ended a two-year budget impasse – restoring critical programs and stabilizing state finances. She played a pivotal role in legislative initiatives that reduced state health care and pension costs, increased funding for Illinois’ schools, and created two of the largest state-backed capital infrastructure programs in the country.

Richards was raised in Belleville, IL and resides in Chicago.