What the heck is Dawg Data?
My name is Chris Shanku and I am a husband, a new father, an Intelligence Technical Specialist (TSP) at Microsoft, and a proud alumnus and die hard fan of the University of Georgia. I love my Dawgs, data, and alliteration, and thus Dawg Data was born.
I have four primary goals for this:
- Share my passion for business intelligence, data storytelling, and automation
- Discuss real world scenarios I’ve encountered
- Learn from the community
- Have some damn fun
My Story
I started my career in 2009 as a Business Intelligence consultant at Avanade in Atlanta, where I quickly developed a love for data engineering and an even greater passion for helping customers. I like to think of my time at Avanade as my foundation years, where I got exposed to Microsoft and management consulting in heavy implementation roles such as a delivery lead, BI developer, business analyst, and scrum master.
In 2014, I somehow convinced my (then) girlfriend to take her talents with me to the midwest, where I continued my career in a similar role at Valorem, a Microsoft gold partner in Kansas City. It was at Valorem where I really got deep into self-service BI and soon discovered Power BI. I was fortunate in 2016 to be promoted into a leadership role, where my focus shifted to architecture, people management, technical presales, and client/relationship management. My love for and experience with Power BI took off tenfold, and I was able to further grow my skill set by hosting 15+ Power BI Dashboard in a Day workshops across Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, and Seattle.
And on December 11, 2017, I officially began my career at Microsoft. I feel incredibly lucky to be working for such a great company and am proud to wear the blue badge each and every day.
What makes me tick?
Passion, empathy, customer service, and using technology to make jobs easier.
From a technology standpoint, I’m most passionate about how Power BI integrates with Office 365 to a) empower employees and engage customers through data storytelling and b) optimize operations with automation. My passion for technology aside, I do not consider myself a developer at heart. I believe that technology simply allows us to reach a destination faster and that solutions should always be people- and process-focused.
Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work
I’m a 1984-born millennial currently living in Atlanta with my wife, Sam; my son, Bruce; and my step-cat, Salty. When I’m not obsessing over data, you can usually find me texting memes to my wife and friends, traveling all over the country to Georgia sporting events, riding my Peloton (add me – ItsNuggyTime), and trying way too hard on my About Me.
Thanks for joining me, and Go Dawgs!
