João Rodrigo Reis Carvalho Leão (born 15 February 1974) is a Portuguese economist, university professor, and politician.

In the government led by Pedro Passos Coelho, Leão was a member of the Economic and Social Council, working in the Ministry of the Economy and serving as a delegate to the OECD.

After the peak of the pandemic in 2021, While Leão was Minister of Finance, Portugal was also among the first group of Euro area countries to reach a budget deficit below the European limit of 3%.

[7][8] In 2022, Leão became Portugal’s nominee to succeed Klaus Regling as Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism;[9][10] his candidacy was later endorsed by the French government[11] and later achieved the majority of the weighted votes in the July 2022 meeting of Board of Governors of the ESM.

[12][13] The nomination process narrowed to Leão and Pierre Gramegna, but both pulled out in September 2022 having failed to secure the votes required.