Mark Denzler is President & Chief Executive Officer of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA), a statewide advocacy organization representing nearly 4,000 member companies and facilities. Under his leadership, both the IMA and Denzler have won numerous awards recognizing their advocacy and effectiveness including being named as “One of 100 Associations Saving the World” by the American Society of Association Executives and the inaugural 2023 COSMA Leadership Award as the “best state manufacturing trade association in the United States.”
Founded in 1893, the IMA is the oldest and largest statewide manufacturing association in the United States and the only statewide organization dedicated exclusively to manufacturing. Its mission is to strengthen, advocate, and promote the business climate for all manufacturers in Illinois. The IMA is BOLDY MOVING MAKERS FORWARD.
Prior to the IMA, Denzler served in various posts including overseeing Illinois government affairs for State Farm Insurance, a Fortune 50 company headquartered in Bloomington. He served as director of government affairs for the IMA and was a legislative analyst in the General Assembly focusing on taxes, education and transportation. Denzler acted as caucus liaison to Governor Edgar’s Ikenberry Commission on School Funding.
Denzler was appointed by Governors Pat Quinn, Bruce Rauner, and JB Pritzker, and confirmed unanimously by the Senate, to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Advisory Board and Illinois Department of Security Advisory Board. He was an inaugural appointee to former Secretary of State Jesse White’s Ethics Board.
Denzler is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Illinois and is currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Illinois Wesleyan University. He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Council of State Manufacturing Associations. Denzler previously sat on the Board of Directors for the Midwest affiliate of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Lincoln Public Library. He was also President of the Lincoln Library Foundation. He was a 2015 selection as an Edgar Fellow at the University of Illinois, graduate of the inaugural class (2015) of the Crain’s Chicago Business Leadership Academy, and received the prestigious “Golden Horseshoe” as the “Best In-House Lobbyist” from noted newsletter Capitol Fax in 2023. In 2018, Denzler was inducted into the Gove Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois-Springfield.