Ian is the current global Head of Evidence for the Arts at the British Council, leading on the evaluation and research of the British Council’s global arts programmes particularly looking at the evidence base around arts, cultural relations and soft power. Ian’s recent work includes the evaluation of Creative Europe funding in the UK, exploring a wide range of social, economic and artistic impacts across the funding programme in the UK and also the evaluation programmes such as the UK’s Cultural Protection Fund. Ian has written and presented a number of papers exploring arts and soft power.

Prior to his work at the British Council, he worked for Telford & Wrekin Council in the UK leading the development on a number of cultural and music education programmes. Previously, he worked for Arts Council England. He is a graduate of both the University of Liverpool and the University of Durham and a current Royal Society for the Arts Evidence Champion.

Ian's 2018-20 CPD Research Fellowship project is titled "Developing an Evaluation Toolbox for Cultural Relations: Evaluating the British Council’s arts showcasing programmes contribution toward developing Cultural Relations and delivering UK Soft Power outcomes." He has also contributed to the CPD Blog.