12460 SE 60th Street / Cell: (206) 465-2106
Bellevue, WA 98006-3958 / / Home - best: (425) 747-1548
“Greg’s Excel solutions have delivered a hugely positive impact on our process, data quality,
and most importantly, our bottom line.” – Bob Arnold, Microsoft Senior Program Manager
Qualifications
Project/Program Manager- Planned, designed, programmed, tested, wrote the documentation for, marketed, and supported three software products.
- Planned, designed, programmed, tested, and supported software tools for Amazon.com and Microsoft.
Microsoft Excel VBA Developer
- Developing custom Microsoft Excel solutions since 1992.
- Over 5 years contracting at Microsoft and Amazon.com programming Excel VBA.
- Wrote and marketed three Microsoft Excel add-ins.
- Over 3 years solving Microsoft Excel customers’ problems, including Excel VBA programming,in Microsoft Excel Product Support. Promoted to escalation lead.
- Microsoft Certified Professional in Excel and Excel VBA.
- Wrote help files, tutorials, and marketing copy for three software products.
- Wrote dozens of Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.
Problem Solver
- Over 9 years solving Microsoft customers’ software problems inMicrosoft product support.
“…his ability to troubleshoot and solve problems is outstanding.” (Ingrid Cox, Dining Room Manager, Duke’s Restaurant)
“…Greg was always the problem solver of the company.” (Jody Kuiper, Manager, Duke’s Restaurant) / Business Analyst
- Gathering requirements across teams by interviewing stakeholders, resolving cross-team conflicts in requirements, getting feedback to resolve defects and close gaps.
- Wrote and marketedthree software products in Visual Basic.
- Over 2½ years solving Visual Basic programmers’ programming problems in Microsoft Developer Support.
- Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, VB4 & VB6.
Database Experience
- Promoted to Microsoft Query/DAO/ODBC Lead, in Microsoft Excel Product Support.Handledall escalations involving accessing databases from Excel.
- Wrote a Microsoft Knowledge Base article on creating database joins from MS Query in Excel.
- Wrote a tutorial on accessing Oracle 6 & 7 databases from Excel, for Excel product support.
- Wrote the chapter on Data Access Objects (DAO) Security for the Microsoft Query training manual for Microsoft Excel 95 product support.
- Wrote SQL statements and SQL Server stored procedures.
- Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD)since1997.
- Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) since 1994.
- Excellent Microsoft Product Support customer survey results.
“His customer focus is strong…and he is very persistent in getting to the bottom of his customers’ cases.” (Jim Cumming, Microsoft Developer Support Team Manager)
“…excellent customer focus and impressive [customer] feedback…” (Tom Kotowski, Microsoft Developer Support Team Manager)
Professional Certification
Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) since 1997, Visual Studio 6.0 and Visual Basic 4.0
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) since 1994, Excel 5.0 VBA and Excel 5.0
Professional Experience
2006 – Present: Software Development Contractor
Custom Excel VBA programming(and other software programming contracts) for various clients.
- Three contracts at Microsoft programming custom tools in Excel VBA.
Reduced a critical 5-day audit to only 1 hour, allowing Microsoft to run that important audit much more frequently, eliminating the expensive risk of incorrectly manufactured product.
During one 1-year contract, by Microsoft’s own estimate, the time savings provided by the tools I wrote for them had an annual value going forward of over $1 million.
In 2011-12, automated a complex Microsoft product licensing template.
In 2012-13, wrote Excel VBA tools to automate the team’s work, including an unusual diff tool for a complex internal Microsoft billing database validation.
- Over 2½ years contracting at Amazon.com, programming Excel VBA for spreadsheets used by merchants to upload products for sale on Amazon.com. Made it much easier and faster for merchants to upload their products.
Saved Amazon vendor account managers much time by making the process so much easier that many more vendors were able to upload their products on their own, without requiring Amazon employees to do it for them.
2003 – Present: Self-Employed Software Developer
Designed, programmed, wrote help files, tutorials, and marketing copy for, and marketed and supportedthree Microsoft Excel add-ins:
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1)“xlPrecision”Excel add-in provides much higher precision in Excel calculations.
2)“inspector text”Excel add-in provides much more powerful and flexible text manipulation in Excel formulas.
3)“The Formulator”Excel add-in formats long, complex formulas in Excel’s formula bar to facilitate easier editing.
1994 –2003: Microsoft
Product Support Professional. Responsible for solving customers’ problems with Microsoft products, including Excel, VB, and Visual InterDev (ASP).
- Promoted to Excel support escalation lead.
- Promoted to Microsoft Query/DAO/ODBC Lead, in Microsoft Excel Product Support.Wrote SQL Statements and SQL Server Stored Procedures.
- Chosen to co-lead beta support for Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition.
- Promoted to Developer Support, a rare advancement from Office application support.
1990 –1993: Duke’s Yacht Club / Big Duke’s on Lake Union (Restaurant)
Started as waiter, promoted to shift manager, then to Information Systems Manager. Responsible for training, troubleshooting, tech support, and configuration updates for restaurant operations software. Developed automated reports for management decision support. Responsible for daily bookkeeping for all sales. Responsible for payroll for all (approximately 100) employees. Trained bookkeeping assistants. Automated bookkeeping and payroll spreadsheets, reducing time spent on them by over 75%. Responsible for retail merchandise; designed spreadsheets to automate tracking & analyzing of purchases, sales, & inventory.
Devised a way to make the computer terminals allow restaurant servers to enter ad-hoc special instructions to chefs and bartenders on food and beverage orders; the computer vendor had told us it couldn’t be done.
Developed an automated daily report that kept managers apprised of employees’ Food Worker Cards (permits) that were expiring soon, had already expired, or had not yet been provided by the employee, making it much easier for the large restaurant with around 100 employees to stay out of trouble with the Washington State Department of Health.
1989 – 1992: Mail-order catalog
Created and operated a mail-order catalog with annual sales over $2,000. Wrote all the merchandise descriptions, designed the order form, conducted bulk mailings.
Prior experience in restaurants and bookstores. As a teenager, mowed up to 10 neighborhood lawns a week, going door to door selling the service and negotiating details.
Greg Lovern – Excerpts from letters, emails, customer survey responses, and performance reviews
Greg was a pleasure to work with and helped drastically reduce our configuration management effort by creating several Excel-based tools. He collected requirements and worked independently, integrated his solution with third-party APIs and built a great interface for operational usage. I highly recommend Greg for his detailed and innovative Excel solutions! (Nicholas Ade, Microsoft Solution Manager)
"Greg’s insight and expertise of Excel has created solutions that have reduced and streamlined our delivery time by half. What an incredible gift, Thank you!" … “The tools that you created are still going strong, and they are known as the Lovern Tools ... a testament to how great they are and how much the business depends on them even 5 years after they were created.” (Rahel Haley, Microsoft Program Manager)
"It all works brilliantly; we had struggled for many years to find a solution to our problem, but Greg designed a macro that WAS the solution -- it does everything we had hoped for. Thank you so much for the great work." (Jess Sutcliffe, Belgravia Music Inc.)
"The work Greg Lovern did creating macros for my business saved me considerable time and money and increased the accuracy of the data we send out. Greg is a very easy guy to work with and not only created the macros, but taught me how to update them and was very willing and helpful to tweak if needed." … “Thanks for making the audits easy.” (Stephanie Murray, Microsoft Program Manager)
Greg, it [Excel VBA custom tool] works outstanding! (John Trujillo, Microsoft Program Manager)
This definitely makes life easier!! Woohoo!!! (Elizabeth Brown, Microsoft Program Manager)
"Greg was a tremendous help to us on this [Great Plains – Excel integration] project. Our existing systems were a complicated collection of old Excel sheets and macros. The primary vendor we were working with on Great Plains implementation was unable to produce a qualified resource that could integrate the data into Excel. However, with Greg, we explained to him what we wanted the system to do, and he jumped right in and made this a reality in less than 2 weeks." (Eric Watson, Incentra Solutions NW)
I wanted to express my extreme appreciation for the outstanding support Mr. Lovern has been providing to me via the microsoft.public.excel.programming newsgroup.
Despite what I have considered to be a series of "killer" questions, Mr. Lovern consistently provides valuable, insightful answers that are targeted "right on". He has amazing insights and consistently shows true understanding for my needs. It is a delight that he often goes beyond the basic question, providing additional tips, tricks, and suggestions. As a further bonus, his answers are VERY well-written…
My deeply felt thanks for Mr. Lovern for all his answers. I am, indeed, a very satisfied customer. (John Macko, Microsoft customer, email to manager) / [Greg provided] the best support I have ever had from Microsoft. (Microsoft customer survey response)
… [Greg was] much more responsive than the other [product support professionals]. (Microsoft customer survey response)
I received excellent customer support from Greg Lovern. (Microsoft customer, email to manager)
I rated [Greg] [the highest possible rating] because the support was great and fast… (Microsoft customer survey response)
Greg was very helpful…I appreciate the way Greg worked with me. (Microsoft customer, email to manager)
I am very happy and satisfied with the problems/questions [Greg] supported. (Microsoft customer, email to manager)
It was my pleasure to work with Greg Lovern…He helped me resolve the issue quickly and completely. He was not only knowledgeable but very personable. I am well satisfied with the support I received. (Microsoft customer, email to manager)
[Greg] was very helpful and solved my problem very quickly. (Microsoft customer survey response)
Greg immediately went straight to the point and made a recommendation that seems to have resolved the problem. (Microsoft customer, email to manager)
[Greg] resolved our issue in no time. (Microsoft customer, email to manager)
Thanks for the great work. It was refreshing to see somebody really jump on a case and push through to a resolution right then. (Microsoft Premier Technical Account Manager Maxwell Myrick)
[Greg has] been very helpful to me on several occasions with issues that cross [product support] boundaries. (Dennis Hanson, Microsoft Developer Support Manager)
Greg Lovern did an incredible job for us…he was extremely helpful… (Drew Bollman, Microsoft customer, email to manager)
The level of service [Greg] provided was excellent. (Microsoft customer Arhan at Data Physics, email to manager)
[Greg is] the ODBC expert [in Microsoft Excel Product Support]…(Tim Nevins, Microsoft Excel Product Support Team Manager)
“Wow, outstanding to get to a true source about using [Excel's MS] Query. Thanks Greg! I really appreciate it.”(Joe Rettenmaier, Microsoft Contractor)
Greg Lovern – Excerpts from letters, emails, customer survey responses, and performance reviews
Your focus on customer satisfaction was evident in the attention you give to each customer need.You exceeded expectations by completing VBA certification and taking on responsibilities that stretched you including the Query co-lead role…
You are self-directed, confident, focused on quality, and a pleasant person to work with. You are composed and objective in any situation, and ready to contribute something positive. You seem to thrive when under pressure, and are not afraid to take on additional responsibility.
You have been one of the most consistent phone performers in the queue. Your attention to meeting your goals for productivity, quality and customer satisfaction have contributed in tangible ways to the success of the queue. (Paul Hayes, Microsoft Excel Product Support Manager, performance reviews)
You are an integral part of our unit by providing leadership and training in many areas…You have become a key player in our unit’s more technical areas of Query, DAO, and VBA…You lead by seeing problems around you that need to be solved…
You are dependable and focused to accomplish all the tasks required of you.
I’ve asked that you help special customers on very short notice and you are always accommodating. (Steve Simunds, Microsoft Excel Product Support Manager, performance review)
Greg, you have consistently met all and exceeded many of the requirements for a level 9 engineer. Your productivity is excellent.
Customer satisfaction and quality is where you really shine. Your focus on the customer is excellent whether that customer is another support engineer or end user. The mentor survey ranked you above average… [when that survey was taken, I had just started as a mentor --GL]
Greg, you have consistently performed at a high level in the midst of great change to our business. You handled the changes with flexibility and maturity. Great job! (Sherry Bloxam, Microsoft Excel Product Support Manager, performance review) / You continued to take on challenging cases, often involving technologies where you had no prior expertise or exposure. You’re always willing to take on new issues in order to ensure ownership of the case.
You took on several cases when went beyond your technical expertise to ensure the customer didn’t fall through the holes in our support boundaries for Office developer incidents…“fearless” was a word used in the peer evaluations.
Your commitment to the customer is impressive. (Colleen Hunter, Microsoft Developer Support Manager, performance review and mid-year checkpoint)
Customer focus and technical ability are of the utmost importance in Developer Support, and Greg does well here. Case documentation and emails interacting with customers speak to Greg’s technical writing skills, as well.
…he has been the “go to” person for Office Dev[eloper] issues here in [Washington State Developer Support]. (Phil Petrocelli, Microsoft Developer Support Manager, performance review)
Greg is a hard worker who does not shrink from challenges and responsibility.
His customer feedback has particularly highlighted his professionalism and persistence. Greg set a great example with his 7-Steps [case wellness] adherence, leading the team in this area.
His customer focus is strong…and he is very persistent in getting to the bottom of his customers’ cases. (Jim Cumming, Microsoft Developer Support Manager, performance review and mid-year checkpoint)
Your productivity is outstanding.
Greg, your work in keeping customers satisfied is outstanding.
Your communication is very professional and positive while not sugar-coating issues that need to be resolved.
You are also a great mentor. I received email from one outsource engineer that says you are her favorite mentor.
You are the ODBC expert…
You have also shown flexibility by volunteering to work alternate shifts to help maintain coverage.
You are very self-motivated. (Tim Nevins, Microsoft Excel Product Support Manager, performance review)
Greg Lovern – Excerpts from letters, emails, customer survey responses, and performance reviews