Ian co-founded Development Seed in 2003 and since then has been involved in everything from business and project management to code development and system administration. Ian now runs point on the cloud architecture and management for MapBox's TileStream. Ian also provides vital support to us and our partner organizations on development projects, technical documentation, and systems configuration. His communications skills and fluency in everything from cloud server architecture to developing data visualization applications help us make sure the details are tight on each of our projects.

Ian has been interested in web programming for much of his life and can truthfully say he made his first hack in BASIC on one of the very first computers from Apple. He began seriously developing on the web in the late 1990’s and has dozens of projects under his belt, ranging from his work supporting small NGOs in Peru to helping the U.S. Department of Education and the World Bank create and release open source code.

As an undergraduate and graduate student at American University, Ian studied international relations and international development. His research included looking at the impact that development and environmental projects had on communities in India and nonprofits’ use of technology in the mountains of Peru. While in Peru, he began working with local organizations to implement open source solutions to address their communications problems.

Ian lives in Ayacucho, Peru.