Ian has been a leader in data analytics and digital marketing for almost twenty years. In 2000 he co-founded WebAbacus, one of the UK’s first web analytics firms, working with major brands and media agencies to define the online ad campaign and web behavior measurement space, and delivering some of the industry’s first ever cross-channel campaign analysis and attribution projects.
In 2006 he joined Microsoft in Seattle to build analytics tools for the Microsoft Advertising business. During the next five years, he built a data platform to understand and predict ad monetization across Microsoft’s major online properties, including Bing, MSN, Outlook.com and Xbox Live, as well as third-party content partner sites. He delivered a string of innovations that helped senior leadership within the company boil down the complexities of online advertising and make impactful decisions on how to run the business.
From 2012 to 2018, he held a leadership role in Microsoft’s Customer Data & Analytics group, running a multidisciplinary team that was responsible for delivering multichannel digital marketing campaigns for the Xbox, Windows, Bing and Surface brands, targeted from a customer database with over 2B profiles with hundreds of attributes. He pioneered the use of Machine Learning & AI to deliver significantly improved campaign ROI through predictive segment generation and model-driven campaign analysis.