Ian graduated from the University of Waterloo (UW) with a BMath (Hons) 1973 and MMath 1979 in Mathematics and Computer Science and worked at UW under Wes Graham in the Computer Systems Group (1973-81) as a software developer and manager. Ian was President and co-founder of Watcom (1981-95), the first UW software spin-off company; then VP & GM at Sybase Waterloo (1995-97) after Sybase acquired Watcom. Subsequently, Ian assisted with the $1.8B mergers of LivePage (UW spin-off), Janna Systems (Toronto) and Siebel Systems (California), the largest software acquisition in Canadian history (1998-2001). At UW, Ian serves as a member of the Board of Governors (1998-2004 & 2005-08), including roles as the Vice Chair of the Board (2001-04 & 2005-08), Chair of the Building & Properties committee (2000-04). He is currently Board Chair of the Waterloo R&T Park Accelerator Centre (2006-), and was founding Chair of its Entrepreneurship Council (2004-2006).

Ian was a Director of TSX-listed companies Dalsa Corporation (1998-2005), and Janna Systems (2000-01), and was a Director of the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation (2000-03). He is currently a Director of NexJ Systems, a new venture of Janna founder, Bill Tatham. Ian was the first recipient of UW's J.W. Graham Medal for Computing and Innovation (1995), and was a charter member of Atlas Group, the forerunner of Communitech (1992-99). He is the father of three grown daughters, has three grandchildren and is an active member of his church.