As the CEO of Development Seed, Ian oversees the technology strategy and development capacity, keeping it pointed at the most interesting problems in development. Ian has a rich history of building teams and communities at the intersection of technology and human rights. Ian was a founding member of the National Democratic Institute's ICT team where he led innovations such as SMS-based election monitoring and open election data. Ian went on to build Internet Freedom Programs at the State Department’s Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Ian oversaw a growth in the State Department’s Internet freedom portfolio from $20 million to over $100 million. His stewardship of Internet freedom funding helped to grow the community of organizations advancing digital rights. Ian is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where he "focused" on physics, economics, computer science, and international relations.