Ian was a senior manager in Telecom from 1975 to 1991 and in the Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC), later Telstra, from 1992 until retirement in 1994.

Before joining Telecom he had  12 years experience in the private sector working in ten diverse and competitive markets within Australia and overseas. His experience covered a wide range of business functions including production engineering, consulting, operations research, systems development, strategy, sales, marketing, distribution and general management. This work involved the use of computers in the above markets, and in business processes and applications, some using algorithms to further improve business performance .