Doug Shulman

Doug Shulman Profile

Doug Shulman was Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service from 2008 until his term expired in 2012. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kenney School’s Center for Business and Government. As head of the IRS, he led one of the largest financial institutions in the world with 100,000 employees and more than $2.5 trillion of annual transactions. Under Doug Shulman’s leadership the IRS played a major role in economic recovery efforts by delivering about $300 billion—or 40% of the money of the Recovery Act—through the federal tax system. Shulman was also involved in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, as most of the financial information and transactions from the law flow through the tax system.

In the face of an increasingly global environment, Shulman increased activity on a variety of international tax efforts. Shulman also led a major modernization of IRS’s technology and transformed the way the agency used data analytics. Previously Shulman was vice chairman of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and its predecessor NASD, where he oversaw stock market operations and was a capital markets regulator. He also has a background in private equity and entrepreneurial start-up ventures. Today, Shulman applies his expertise to examine the role of regulation pertaining to taxes, health care, financial markets as well as leveraging his experience driving change in technology and large-scale organizations.