Ryan Irelan

Ryan is a partner at Pine Works, where he helps organizations plan and deliver complex, content-rich digital platforms. With over 20 years of experience in web development, Ryan brings a calm, strategic mindset to projects that require both big-picture thinking and technical depth.

He’s worked with clients like Stanford, Ben & Jerry’s, and Papa John's guiding teams through platform rethinks, CMS migrations, and digital transformations. 

Prior to Pine Works, Ryan led technology at a national higher-ed organization, served as VP Technology at Happy Cog, and founded CraftQuest, an online learning platform for developers building with Craft CMS and modern web development tools.

Ryan is the author of two books: The Business Podcasting Book (Focal Press, 2007) and ExpressionEngine 2: A Quick-Start Guide (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2010). He's also created and taught technical courses to internal teams at NASA, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, University of Chicago, and UMass Boston.

At Pine Works, Ryan is one of the software partners, working on technical architecture, and platform planning—ensuring that every solution is scalable, sustainable, and built to last.

Ryan received his Certificate for German as Foreign Language from Goethe-Institut e.V., a B.S. in German Studies from Middle Tennessee State University and an M.A. in German Studies from the great University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Go Heels.