Ion Ivan graduated from graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at the Academy of Economic Studies and holds a PhD in Economics from the Romanian Academy.
During 1992-1995, he was an economist/inspector at the Agricultural Bank SA and developed activities of analysis and evaluation for corporations, micro editing and monitoring/control of banking operations.
Between 1995-2016, Ivan served as an officer in the Romanian Intelligence Service, where he specialized in information collection operations and in economic security procedures to prevent fraud, corruption, money laundering, and combat terrorist financing.
From 2007-2015, he worked at the National Intelligence Agency “Michael the Brave” as a drill sergeant/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor and taught Work methods for intelligence-operatives, Policies and strategies to combat terrorist financing, Economic and financial risks for national security, and size of the banking and financial economic security. He has occupied various financial positions: Member of the Scientific Council ANIMV, chief editor of the Romanian Journal of studies of Intelligence, chief Scientific Secretary, chairman of the Senate ANIMV, and Dean of Information.
He has been a manager and part of teams across six projects financed by EU funds and grants awarded through competition at the national level.
He has published scientific research studies in over 60 articles as an author, co-author, and coordinator.
Since 2016 he operates as an independent researcher, providing economic intelligence consulting.