patrickab
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Member Since: 2002/12/06
Tech Certifications:

Provide a quick, creative biography in 140 characters or less.

More bio
Activity
Points this month4
Total points4,176,224
Questions: 320
Solutions: 3879
Articles: 1
Videos:
Tutorials:
Posts:
Group Discussions: 207
Professional Background
No Professional Background shown
More
Education
No Education Background shown
More
Full Biography

In the dim and distant past I was a textile engineer. No one now knows what that is and I have almost forgotten. Since then I have spent 8 of my 9 lives in 9 companies and about 17 jobs in 40 years. Picking up a bit about computers en-route. The first computer I used was an Atlas (Ferranti/Plessey). It occupied a 25ft x 25ft room and had to be fed paper tape for its meals. However in practical terms it was not as useful as the pc I am using now.

From engineering research to retail product development, to machinery and software sales and raw materials buying I have covered a fair range. From the most junior position to running an international subsidiary of a large German Engineering Corporation. I have had fun and in the Chinese sense also had an interesting time.

I stumbled across this amazing site a few years back. The Experts were and still are truly helpful and I learnt and continue to learn an enormous amount from them. Even though I have accumulated many points helping anyone that I can on MS Excel - the learning process goes on to this very day. To start with I attempted to answer a wide range of questions using just formulae but with the encouragement from the MS Excel Experts here I have learned some VBA, indeed enough to be able to help many both here and elsewhere.

Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of this site is that one can learn and make use of that learning to help others here get the best out of MS Excel. That has now extended to work on school budgeting to the analysis of crime statistics and automation for the police force in London, the MET. This latter involvement has resulted, within a few months, in a 30% reduction in the Management IS department. Since my involvement has been on a pro-bono basis, the savings have been hugely cost-effective! Apart from that the speed and accuracy of the department's analyses have been significantly improved. New reporting procedures, have meant in some of the MET's 31 divisions taking on extra full time staff, however in my local division I have automated the tasks so avoiding the need for extra staff. The methods have been so effective that they have been adopted by an increasing number of the MET's other divisions.

With two adult daughters and two grand-daughters and more interests than time permits I need to organise my schedule almost as well as when I worked full time. Deeply into DIY at almost any level, I have now acquired a metal working lathe as a gift from a fellow tennis player! Not yet decided what I am going to construct, only time will tell.

I am hopeless at remembering when I achieved any given milepost here on Experts Exchange and can only marvel at the ability of some Experts who keep a running tab on what they achieved and when they achieved it. All I do know is that I passed the 2,000,000 points mark in MS Excel sometime in 2008 and 3,000,000 points in 2009.

I live in North West London, UK.

More
Languages
No Languages shown

Level Progress

Current: Level 45
patrickab needs 55,776 points to level up.
LVL 46
  • Overall
    45
  • Microsoft Excel
    44
  • Microsoft Office
    12
  • Visual Basic Classic
    11
  • Microsoft Applications
    10
  • VB Script
    9
  • Spreadsheets
    8
  • Lotus IBM
    5
  • Microsoft Access
    5
  • Philosophy / Religion
    5
  • Microsoft Word
    5
  • Programming
    4
  • Microsoft Development
    4
  • Outlook
    4
  • Software
    4
  • Math / Science
    4
  • Printers and Scanners
    3
  • Visual Basic.NET
    3
  • Microsoft Legacy OS
    3
  • .NET Programming
    3
  • Databases
    3
  • Microsoft Server OS
    2
  • Miscellaneous
    2
  • Hardware
    2
  • Programming Languages-Other
    2
  • Programming Theory
    2
  • Windows XP
    2
  • Office Productivity
    2
  • Peripherals
    2
  • Productivity Apps
    2
  • Perl
    2
  • Office Suites-Other
    2
  • Windows Server 2003
    2
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005
    2
  • Web Development Software
    2
  • Fonts Typography
    2
  • GIS/GPS Programming
    2
  • Windows OS
    1
  • Microsoft SharePoint
    1
  • Components
    1
  • Network Management
    1
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
    1
  • Web Development
    1
  • Tax / Financial Software
    1
  • Politics
    1
  • SSRS
    1
  • Email Software
    1
  • Mac OS X
    1
  • Desktops
    1
  • Windows Batch
    1
  • SBS
    1
  • SQL
    1
  • Project Management
    1
  • Networking
    1
  • Scripting Languages
    1
  • ASP.NET
    1
  • Active Directory
    1
  • BlackBerry
    1
  • C#
    1
  • LibreOffice
    1
  • Adobe Acrobat
    1
  • Web Applications
    1
  • Windows 7
    1
  • Microsoft SQL Server
    1
  • System Utilities
    1
  • Automotive
    1
  • Sybase Database
    1
  • Java
    1
  • System Programming
    1
  • FoxPro
    1
  • Enterprise Software
    1
  • E-Commerce
    1
  • Email Servers
    1
  • Server Hardware
    1
  • JavaScript
    1
  • Exchange
    1
  • Algorithms
    1
  • ASP
    1
  • Anti-Virus Apps
    1
  • Business Management
    1
  • DNS
    1
  • Disaster Recovery
    1
  • Illustration Software
    1
  • InfoPath
    1
  • Microsoft DOS
    1
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008
    1
  • Microsoft Server Apps
    1
  • Network Analysis
    1
  • Network Architecture
    1
  • Statistical Packages
    1
  • VMware
    1
  • Windows Vista
    1
  • XML
    1