Max Ghenis is a policy entrepreneur, technologist, and economist dedicated to advancing public policy through open-source research and software development. He is the co-founder and CEO of PolicyEngine, a nonprofit that builds software to analyze the impact of public policies. Prior to this, he founded the UBI Center, the first and only open-source economic policy think tank, which conducts quantitative research on universal basic income. Max is committed to democratizing policy analysis, making complex economic insights accessible to policymakers and the public. His leadership extends to serving on the leadership council of the Policy Simulation Library and as an expert at the Open Research Group.
Beyond his work in economic research, Max has been active in policy advocacy. He co-founded Ventura County YIMBY in 2019 to address the housing crisis in California, has supported carbon fee-and-dividend policies through the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and created the Save the Gas Tax campaign to oppose gas tax holidays. He holds a master’s degree in Data, Economics, and Development Policy from MIT and a bachelor’s in Operations Research and Management Science from UC Berkeley. Before transitioning to policy research, Max worked as a data scientist at Google from 2010 to 2018, where he specialized in survey analysis, natural language processing, and data analytics for YouTube’s global reach and emerging markets.