Igor Irkho — Curriculum Vitae

Igor “Gary” Irkho — Curriculum Vitae

Architect, builder, instructor, and project manager based in the Washington, DC metro area; glad to travel, domestically or internationally, to meet partners, collaborators, and participants. What I do here, at Opplet, and why, is on my Opplet page; this is the fuller career account behind it.

Experience

Principal Architect | Opplet (A project of The Economic Group) Ongoing

Architected and manage a multi-node, self-hosted sovereign infrastructure utilizing a Proxmox/ZFS cluster secured behind a hardened edge router.
Engineered a dual-directory identity model and Opplet IAM, integrating OpenLDAP to effectively separate personal and professional domains across the enclave.
Implementing fully automated operations, continuous recruitment pipelines, and a rigorously tested disaster-recovery regime.
Developing the platform into an open-source, inspectable ecosystem that serves as the technological foundation for Educaship and functions as a meritocratic proving ground for learners to build verifiable, practice-based portfolios.

Director | The Economic Group (Okemos, MI / Worldwide) 2004–Present

Directed the U.S. incorporation and strategic evolution of the organization following its relocation from Belarus, ensuring the continuity of its civil and economic mission.
Lead all organizational technology strategy and systems architecture over a two-decade tenure, currently culminating in the development of the Opplet infrastructure project.
Designed, delivered, and managed the credentialing for independent training programs (including CNMCyber), establishing a standardized framework for experiential, “learn-by-doing” educational systems.

AI Project Manager | Virginia Institute of Technology LLC (Chantilly, VA / Eastern Europe) 2023–2025

Managed a cross-border collaboration with an Eastern European development partner to prototype and launch a commercial AI training program.
Developed and delivered “Future of Work Is AI,” a hands-on prompt-engineering curriculum utilizing ChatGPT and Jitsi, with architectural planning for Proxmox VE virtual machine integration.

Project Manager | Virginia Institute of Technology LLC (Chantilly, VA / Vinnytsia, Ukraine) 2017–2018

Led an independent venture in collaboration with an international development partner to engineer a hands-on technical assessment, training, and certification platform.
Architected a “purposeful practice” evaluation system that automatically provisioned live Proxmox VE virtual machines to learners and job candidates.
Designed performance-based competency metrics, evaluating participants strictly on practical, real-world execution rather than traditional standardized testing scores.

Architect | Educaship Alliance LLC 2016–2025

Architected a comprehensive operational model fusing education, career management, and experiential practice into a continuous lifecycle.
WorldOpp: Repurposed the overarching methodology as “Career Pipeline,” guiding participants from foundational employability concepts through structured, hands-on internships.
KenyaX (Kenya), iDosvid (Ukraine): Designed an international proving ground acting as a first real employer, enabling apprentices to execute real-world tasks and gain pre-entry-level work experience.
WiseNxt: Engineered an overview-practice program allowing pre-graduation students to trial non-managerial and coordinating roles before committing to a specific career trajectory.

Instructor | Shanghai Jian Qiao University (with Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology) 2018–2023

Instructed undergraduate business and management courses for students in airport management and aviation maintenance programs.
Engineered and administered a custom, self-hosted learning management platform to ensure seamless curriculum delivery and student tracking from 2018 through 2019.

Volunteer Developer | Career Network Ministry (CNM), Vienna, VA 2018–2022

Led systems design and final architecture decisions for the CNMCyber platform, scaling the infrastructure across hundreds of compute servers, virtual environments, and middleware applications.
Executed the end-to-end selection, integration, and configuration of disparate technical components into a unified, functional ecosystem.
Designed and deployed a free, comprehensive job-search curriculum within the CNMCyber platform in response to the 2020 pandemic.

Talent and Training Systems Architect | Confidential Investment Group 2014–2019

Architected and executed comprehensive overhauls of recruiting, onboarding, and corporate training systems under strict NDA.
Directed non-traditional talent acquisition by pitching opportunities directly at events and other venues, bypassing conventional cold-calling and database screening.
Engineered a practice-based proving ground, qualifying candidates through technical evaluation gates based strictly on practical work output rather than conventional resume metrics.

Independent Educator & Curriculum Developer | NY, Washington, D.C. Metro, & Remote 2007–2019

Developed and instructed international business courses for universities in Russia and Belarus, delivering curriculum entirely through a custom-built, proprietary learning system that served as the foundational architecture for Opplet IAM.
Designed and directed hands-on technology programs for school-age students as an official Microsoft Partner, hosting experiential, trial-and-error learning sessions at Microsoft Stores and the Mott Center.
Delivered an invited guest presentation at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) on related methodologies in 2009.

Volunteer Hands-On Training Leader | Career Network Ministry (CNM), Vienna, VA 2012–2018

Designed and delivered hands-on technical and professional training to over 3,200 career-transitioning professionals across disciplines including Agile software development, web engineering (HTML/CSS/JS/PHP), PMBOK, and accounting.
Founded and scaled a technical training community through public meetups, which ultimately served as the foundational user base and catalyst for the CNMCyber infrastructure platform.
Engineered high-impact “Fast Track” programs that successfully upskilled legacy professionals into senior technical roles (e.g., Director of Web Operations at ASME) and provided a reliable platform for federal contractors to host proprietary administrative courses.

Project Director (Subcontractor) | U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (Washington, DC) 2012–2018

Directed contracted projects and operations for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).

Adjunct Instructor, Management | Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (Flushing, NY / Remote) 2009–2018

Instructed and managed remote undergraduate management courses, ensuring consistent curriculum delivery and student engagement over a nine-year tenure.

Educational Technology Consultant | Ural Federal University (via The Economic Group) 2006–2014

Advised university leadership on the strategic implementation of learning management systems, educational software infrastructure, and academic compliance with Bologna Accord standards.

Culture Instructor & Curriculum Developer | U.S. Marine Corps CAOCL (Quantico, VA) 2010–2011

Headed the Russian module of an experimental language-and-culture program as a credentialed contractor (via Professional Solutions LLC).
Engineered and deployed a custom, self-hosted learning platform (the architectural predecessor to Opplet) to deliver coursework, utilizing personal data dashboards to track and analyze individual learner proficiency gaps.
Redesigned the curriculum to focus on frequency-based vocabulary and media-driven listening, proactively extending the instructional model to support the USMC Flight Student Language Program.

Adjunct Instructor, Business | SUNY Westchester Community College (Valhalla, NY) 2006–2007

Instructed undergraduate courses in marketing and international business.
Spearheaded early EdTech integration by developing and administering a dedicated course website to digitize materials and ensure continuous student access.

Founder & Director | Belinformbureau (Minsk, Belarus) 1993–2004

Founded, scaled, and directed a prominent media publishing and printing enterprise, growing the organization to over 100 employees before orchestrating a successful sale prior to U.S. emigration.
Spearheaded early digital transformation by engineering highly computerized production pipelines and sales operations.
Architected and developed a custom-coded CRM and accounting system, integrating a data-driven customer segmentation model to optimize tier-based advertising sales.

Director | Mogilevservice (Mogilev, Belarus) 1991–1993

Initiated the formation of a government contract brokerage agency, successfully managing its spin-off into an independent, private enterprise.
Designed and deployed the company’s proprietary payroll and accounting systems to streamline contractor sourcing and lifecycle contract management.

Managing Director | Youth Initiative Foundation, under the Youth Communist Union’s (Komsomol) Mogilev City Committee (Mogilev, Belarus) 1988–1991

Directed municipal-level development projects, notably launching the city’s first cable television network and a new community youth café.

Early Career (1984–1988)

Mechanical Supervisor | Mogilevkhimvolokno (Mogilev, Belarus) | 1986–1988

Supervised a mechanical engineering team responsible for the maintenance and repair of industrial production equipment.

Independent Event Organizer | Mogilev, Belarus | 1985–1987

Managed end-to-end event logistics and entertainment coordination for private functions.

Entertainment Systems Technician | Mogilev Restaurant (Mogilev, Belarus) | 1984–1986

Provided technical support and operation of entertainment systems for hospitality venues.

Competencies

Architecture & integration. Designing self-hosted systems and assembling them from open-source components — selecting, integrating, configuring, and wiring the pieces into a coherent whole, then keeping it running. Data layers across SQL and NoSQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, MongoDB); service integration over RESTful APIs; version control with Git/GitLab. I wrote the original PHP behind Opplet IAM years ago; today I work mainly at the level of architecture and integration, reading and adapting code more than authoring it.

Infrastructure & security. Linux/Ubuntu administration and the LAMP stack; Proxmox virtualization and OpenZFS; hardened edge routing and firewalls; identity and access management (Opplet IAM, OpenLDAP, Authentik, SAML2/OAuth 2.0/OpenID); secure mesh networking; web servers (Nginx, Apache); DNS/DNSSEC, TLS/SSL. Automated backup, monitoring, and disaster recovery.

Platforms I’ve deployed and run. Learning systems (Moodle); ERP (Odoo, ERPNext); content and collaboration (HumHub, BookStack, Hugo SSG); developer tooling (GitLab, Discourse); conferencing (Jitsi); workflow automation (n8n).

Design & production. Adobe Creative Suite, Inkscape.

Credentials

M.B.A., Business Administration — Belarusian State University, Minsk M.S. / B.S., Mechanical Engineering — Belarusian-Russian University (formerly the Mogilev Machine-Building Institute), Mogilev

Project Management Professional (PMP) — Project Management Institute ITIL Foundation, IT Service Management — AXELOS

Alumnus (2001), International Visitor Program, U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.