Formerly the Head of Life Sciences at Hay Group, Ian is now Head of People and Performance at ZS Associates. With over twenty-five years of management consulting experience, Ian has worked closely with executives as they assess the tradeoffs and challenges associated with a successful launch. Ian’s launch and early-stage experience has been extensive. He has focused on helping senior executives identify the capabilities – both organization and people – that are needed to execute on early-stage launch success. Ian’s experience in this arena has spanned over seventeen years, beginning with ICOS, and more recently working with early commercial-stage companies in the areas of NASH, Dermatology, and Rare Diseases. He has worked closely with management and Boards to share a commercialization approach that balances the financial constraints facing early-stage companies while acknowledging the importance of gaining traction early in the launch phase. Ian recognizes that launch presents a number of uncertainties — market, regulatory, financial and – not the least to be acknowledged – the inherent nature of the product and its potential side effect profile. Preparing management and the Board for uncertainty and unpredictability is an essential capability that successful early-stage players have mastered.