Jean-François Ruel is senior economist at the Canadian Tax Observatory, specializing in tax policy, microsimulation and quantitative analysis. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the federal public service, most of it at the Department of Finance Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency. At Finance, he developed corporate income tax models and contributed to federal budget measures. At the CRA, he served as Deputy Chief Data Officer, led the publication of Canada’s tax statistics and advanced the use of analytics in tax administration.

His work combines a deep understanding of tax policy design with practical experience in how taxes are administered and analyzed. He has also completed assignments as an external short-term expert for the International Monetary Fund, helping governments strengthen tax policy modelling, revenue analysis and compliance risk management. He holds a master’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in mathematics with a specialization in statistics, both from the Université de Sherbrooke.