Celebrating MIT’s 150th Anniversary: Alumni Ian Clemens, Founder Of IDV Solutions (Part 1)

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Ian Clemens is the co-founder and chief technology officer for IDV Solutions. Ian is an expert in interactive data visualization, location intelligence and business intelligence software, and has authored a number of articles on the topic in publications including DM Review and Directions Magazine.
Prior to joining IDV, he was director of technology solutions for Universal Map, a map publisher and distributor, and senior consultant for BBK Ltd./Anderson Economic Group, a consulting firm specializing in economics, finance, and public policy. Clemens holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in Christian studies from Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Sramana: Ian, let’s go back to the beginning of your story. Where did you grow up and what was the path that you took to becoming an entrepreneur?

Ian Clemens: I was born and raised in southeastern Pennsylvania. I went to MIT in 1991, where I was exposed to a very creative environment and a can-do atmosphere that was infectious. I majored in applied mathematics. After graduation I dabbled in mathematical modeling and statistics work for a Harvard professor. That was my first exposure to visualization.

Sramana: After graduation what did you do for work?

Ian Clemens: After MIT I went and worked for a Christian ministry group in Boston for two years. I met with students from a Christian faith perspective.

Sramana: What prompted that? What in your background made you want to do that?

Ian Clemens: I had come from a Christian background, but it became more real for me in school at MIT. Having like-minded people around me made me want to be more involved and give back. That is where I met my wife, and I was married in 1995. In 1996, my wife and I moved to Vancouver, where I pursued a master’s degree in Christian studies at Regent College, which I completed in 1998. At that time we moved to Michigan, which is where I currently reside, and which is where my wife is from.

I got involved in economics, public policy, and tax consulting. I went back to some of my math background and was programming models of tax policy on state and regional levels to expose the economic impacts of those policies. I also started doing some private sector work such as consulting on site selection for retail as well as economic studies for new power plants. Not only did I delve into the mathematical modeling of all of that, but I also addressed the visualization effects. That is when I was exposed to geographic information systems, or GIS as it is commonly called. That had been more of a backroom technology used by specialist. I wanted to take the power of mapping to business users. So much data can be related to location. This was in 1999 and 2000.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Celebrating MIT's 150th Anniversary: Alumni Ian Clemens, Founder Of IDV Solutions
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