Ian is the president of YaghPenn Consulting, BV, an organization focused on guiding early-stage drug development for neurodegenerative disease. He previously served as the CEO of Rewind Therapeutics in Leuven, Belgium, leading efforts to discover remyelination-promoting therapeutics. Ian has worked in drug discovery for neurodegenerative and neurological diseases in several other companies. These include Teva Pharmaceuticals where he was the Vice President and Head of Small Molecule Discovery, as well as Knopp Biosciences and Merck Research Laboratories.
Prior to moving into drug discovery, Ian spent 17 years at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he was Professor of Pharmacology and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. His research there was focused on cellular mechanisms of neurodegeneration with a particular emphasis on mitochondrial function and on ion homeostasis. Born in London, Ian earned a B.Sc. in Pharmacology from Leeds University. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago.
