Ioan has an extensive record of delivering high-profile innovation across use cases and continents. Recently, Ioan served as Advisor in Innovation and Emerging Technologies for the Government of Romania, where he founded and currently leading a portfolio of key projects: the National AI Committee, National Scientific and Ethics Council on AI, the EUR 50M Romanian AI Hub, and the national effort for Romania’s AI Strategy, as well as a sovereign Romanian Innovation Fund.
Ioan was part of a curated expert group setting up the NATO Innovation Fund, a pioneering 1B VC fund in which allied nations are limited partners (investors), focused on deep tech investments across the Alliance. Ioan also managed the drafting of the national-level legislation for the Fund, as well as Romania’s involvement in the Fund’s sister initiative: NATO Accelerator for Defense Innovation – NATO DIANA.

In 2018, he cofounded CyBourn, an EU-US cybersecurity services provider, and an AI-focused med tech application startup in 2020. Since 2018, Ioan worked as an independent consultant, supporting innovation and scientific-driven organizations with strategic and M&A topics, including the Springer Nature Group, Net Zero Tech Center and FT100 companies.
As XPRIZE Visioneer in 2016, Ioan designed the organization’s flagship Avatar program; XPRIZE is a unique organization spearheaded by global innovators such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson; Ioan won the 2016 Visionners competition. Ioan then assisted the Brain Mapping Foundation (Los Angeles) with transitioning global leading IP towards commercial applications.
Currently, Ioan also applies his expertise by volunteering as expert at Unleash+, supporting social-impact start-ups globally.

Ioan is currently part of an executive Masters program in AI Ethics, Governance & Society at the University of Cambridge. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was also directly elected as Vice President of the entire graduate student body.
He also holds an MA in International Affairs and a BA in International Economics from ASE Bucharest. Ioan is a Young Leaders Program Fellow of the Aspen Institute Romania and was nominated in Forbes 30under30 (US and Romania).

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