Mark P. Lagon

Dr. Mark P. Lagon is Executive Director of the Polaris Project. He was confirmed by the Senate in May 2007 to serve as Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State. The TIP Office (www.state.gov/g/tip) coordinates U.S. Government activities in the global fight against modern-day slavery, including commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.  

Ambassador Lagon spearheaded U.S. anti-slavery diplomacy across the globe and has advocated for increased multilateral cooperation, including through speaking before the UN General Assembly.  He led the TIP Office's catalytic role in international prioritization of the issue of modern-day slavery.  Much of the diplomacy and awareness-building was based on the innovative annual Trafficking in Persons Report, unique in spurring other nations through rankings of their government’s efforts.  The TIP Office also funds NGOs and international organizations to strengthen assistance to victims and enforcement against traffickers, and coordinates efforts with all U.S. agencies, which together have disbursed over half a billion dollars in global anti-trafficking assistance since 2001. 

Through his tenure at the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Ambassador Lagon emphasized the need for the U.S. to frankly assess its own efforts at home if it is to press other nations to do more, acting as Chair of the Senior Policy Operating Group, which supports the Cabinet-level Presidential Inter-Agency Task Force.  In this role, he worked with domestic agencies to champion an ever more victim-centered approach giving equal attention to all forms of trafficking and to both domestic and foreign national victims.  

The key themes of his tenure at the TIP Office included the need to (1) not just mitigate but eradicate slavery; (2) address the demand for commercial sex from johns and for cheap goods and labor which fuels trafficking; (3) foster tangible corporate social responsibility and accountability; and (4) reduce the vulnerability of migrants in the U.S. and abroad, notably to manipulative recruiters getting them caught in situations they cannot escape.

From 2004 to 2007, Ambassador Lagon served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, when he had lead responsibility for UN-related human rights and humanitarian issues, UN reform, and U.S. public diplomacy in the multilateral arena.

Ambassador Lagon previously served on Secretary of State Colin Powell's Policy Planning Staff, where he focused on the UN, democracy and human rights, and public diplomacy (2002-2004). From 1999 to 2002, he was a senior staff member at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, responsible for international organizations, economic sanctions, human rights, and public diplomacy.  Previously he was Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow specializing in China, and Deputy Staff Director of the House Republican Policy Committee. 

Before working on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Lagon was the principal aide to the Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.  He has also been an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics and Georgetown University.  He has been associate editor of the journal Perspectives on Political Science.

Ambassador Lagon has a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in Government.  He is married to Dr. Susan Sullivan Lagon.  Their daughter Elena is 15.