He was born in Flint, North Wales. He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) and began his career as an electrician at the Odham Colliseum Theater (Manchester). Later he moved to Scarborough (Yorkshire/England) to work with the playwright Alan Ayckbourn. During the period 1978 - 1982 he was a member of the stage lighting team at the Welsh National Opera, and later joined the technical staff of St. David's Hall (Cardiff, Wales) where, among other things, he was distinguished as a lighting technician in the production of Miracle Play Cycle. He returned to the Welsh National Opera in 1988 as Deputy Chief Electrician. Since then he has been responsible for the lighting design in many productions, such as: Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Don Pasquale, Cinderella (La Cenerentola), La Bohéme. Recently he worked on the lighting for the productions of Nabucco and Manon Lescaut in Finland. In addition, he designed the lighting for operas such as The Barber of Seville [Il barbiere di Siviglia] (Opera North), Eugene Onegin (Theater "Miguel de Cervantes", Malaga) and The Cunning Little Vixen [Příhody lišky Bystroušky] (New Israeli Opera,Tel Aviv). Ian is currently Head of Lighting and Sound for the Welsh National Opera. At the GNO, he worked once, where he designed the lighting for the revival of David Pountney's direction of the opera The cunning little vixen (Olympia, 2014/15).