Igor earned his B.S. with an emphasis in business and management in 1998 from the Siberian-American Department of Management, UMUC’s joint program with Irkutsk State University. In an education geared toward the needs of a free market economy, Igor realized that the tools he needed to succeed were not the same as those required under his country’s former regime.

"Effective time management—how to squeeze hundreds of things into 24 hours—and fast-paced study skills were some of the first things I had to learn as a member of the American student community," he says. "The professors who came to Irkutsk to teach Russian students brought the unique spirit of the American educational system, and lectures and books in English created an environment almost identical to a university in America."

Knowledge of Western business and management principles, alien to the Russian economy even four or five years ago, was another vital commodity that Igor says he needed to acquire. Once he did, however, he was immediately able to put it to use. By the third year of his studies, Igor was developing business projects for the Economic Department of the Irkutsk Regional Government Administration and for small and medium-sized private companies.

"At that point, I had few competitors in the local market, which helped me start my professional career," he says. "My knowledge was very marketable."

At about the same time, Igor began working as a part-time employee of the Baikal Educational Center (BEC) of Irkutsk State University (helping to organize seminars and conferences on finance, marketing, personnel management, and effective communications) and his connection with UMUC paid off again. "Having UMUC as a partner helped BEC to begin working with the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank," he says.

Today, Igor works as a full-time program manager for BEC while doing postgraduate work at Irkutsk State University. His duties at work include developing and assessing financial reports and budgets for international consulting and educational projects and conducting negotiations with international organizations like Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Uniscience Ltd., the International Research and Exchange Board, USIA, World Bank, and UMUC. Other activities include working as a consultant, lecturer, translator, and interpreter for international programs on finance, marketing, personnel management, cross-cultural communications, and international negotiations, and conducting personnel management audits for business and government organizations (such as the 1,100-employee Irkutsk City Administration and a 3,000-employee construction, gold mining, and road building company).

Most recently, in February, Igor was in charge of a seminar on corporate governance in Vienna, Austria, organized by the Joint Vienna Institute. More than a dozen directors of major industries in Siberia took part in this event, which included visits to some of Austria’s largest industrial corporations.

Another benefit of studying with the Siberian-American Department of Management, Igor says, is that it has helped him hone his English language skills, something that has been invaluable when developing contacts with international organizations.

There has also been some philosophy mixed in with the hard skills Igor has learned from UMUC, Igor says, noting that "it was the Siberian-American Department of Management that helped me to understand that I am the manager of my own destiny."

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