Celebrating our community for Juneteenth 2022

Azure is a Power Automate connoisseur who recently swapped her 8+ years in pharmaceutical manufacturing for a career in tech. With a background in biochemistry and limited tech experience, Azure discovered Power Automate through an “In a Day” workshop and discovered a newfound passion in automation. Subsequently, Azure helped design and co-lead a 10-week boot camp in her previous job to upskill employees in the Power Platform, giving them the confidence to build business solutions. Two years after her journey with automation, she joined HSO this month as a Lead Consultant where she’s gearing up to become an RPA and (hopeful) Azure Data expert. Azure is a Power Platform Champion and earned Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional award in December 2021. She is on a mission to empower women and underrepresented racial groups to get into tech and provide them with skills and support needed to succeed in the field. Azure currently serves on the leadership team for the TechStylers, a women focused tech group, and is an instructor for the United States cohort of The Power Platform School.

Favorite Power Platform Story:
“A few months after last year’s cohort from The Power Platform School, a graduate of the program reached out to me (their former mentor), to let me know that they landed a job as a junior developer for a Microsoft partner. Another graduate is returning to The Power Platform School this year as a coach to help the new cohort find jobs in tech. It gives me so much joy to learn how my students have flourished in the program and are paying it forward by giving back to the program.”

Favorite Career Quote:
“I firmly believe that there is room for everyone in tech. If you want to learn and show up to do the work, there are folks in the community, myself included, ready to support and guide you every step of the way.

If you’re hungry for knowledge, we’ll feed you; we’ll even bring the whole table to your house!”

LinkedIn Profile | Twitter Profile | Watch Azure’s MBAS presentation

Olanrewaju is a Data Management Expert, Data Scientist, Business Intelligence Analyst and Power Platform Evangelist with over four years of Industry experience spanning across Education, FinTech, and InsurTech space. He is passionate about fixing the technical skill gap needed to accelerate Africa’s growth. Olanrewaju is a co-founder of Capacity Nigeria – an EdTech hub committed to driving Digital Literacy in Africa. He is currently a Data Management Officer at AXA Nigeria (A member of AXA Group) where he oversees the Data Science Team, Data Governance, Data Quality and Maturity Team as well as drives automation initiatives across the organization. Olanrewaju is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, Certified Trainer with over 10 relevant Microsoft Certifications, and he is an active leader in Microsoft Power User Group in Nigeria.

Favorite Power Platform Story:
“One of the most successful solutions this year was related to our insurance policy process. We had many challenges collecting and processing leads from field agents because we were heavily reliant on unstructured information coming in via email and chat messages. This resulted in frustrations for our agents and ultimately would impact how quickly we could execute our customer’s requests. Fast forward to today where the processes involved in lead collection, policy processing, certificate allocations, as well as courier dispatch has been reduced from an average of 4 to 7 days to under 24 hours for 90% of the policies. Power Automate helped to route the appropriate information in a consistent and predictable fashion for speedy processing and delivery of certifications and documentation. As a result of my impact in improving internal processes and customer experiences, I was granted the Chief Client Officer Award for Exceptional Performance.”

Favorite Career Quote:
“I have always been very passionate about accelerating Africa’s growth through training and education. The Power Platform is helping me to impact the community and has been a major enabler for career growth. I feel this even more deeply after being invited into the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional program in 2021. To those seeking to help others with your passion and talents, remember this: The opportunity for fulfillment is not in the “title” you achieve, it is in the lives that you are impacting and changing.”
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Anton is a Senior Power Platform Developer at Hitachi Solutions, a Power Apps and Power Automate Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, and a local Power Platform User Group Leader in Washington, DC. His passion for the entire Microsoft Power Platform community is an understatement. When he is not speaking at an event, he is usually volunteering or organizing other Power Platform labs and “In a Day” workshops. He is a respected speaker at Microsoft conferences and local user groups.

Favorite Power Platform Story:
“The Power Platform has helped me to be a developer ‘on training wheels’. I’ve learned that many of the concepts we use in the Power Platform are found in professional developer circles, and so I’m now able to bring more to the table with fusion teams at Hitachi. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment to be able to plan against such a diverse set of solution-dependencies today. I’ve always felt that Microsoft Power Platform is the great equalizer for Citizen Developers as it enables us to work with business users, developers, and IT more inclusively.

On a personal note, I also love using the Power Platform for family efficiencies. For instance, I created a quick bot for my daughter, Akeicya. Now, when she requests loans from her parents, a bot agent will help her to justify, and to remember, the loan. I was able to build a quick bot using Power Virtual Agents and Microsoft Teams.”

Favorite Career Quote:
“Remember that you are not alone; just get started. Seek feedback and ask questions along the way. Be persistent, and never forget the community. It takes a community to elevate technical brethren. Even if you fail at something (which will happen), fail ‘forward’, always learning from your mistakes and you’ll be successful.”
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Will is a Senior Consultant at Hitachi Solutions with over ten years of experience in consulting. He currently leads the United States cohort for The Power Platform School where they upskill individuals in the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community in the Power Platform and general consulting skills. Will thrives on enabling others to be successful and helping clients meet their business goals through digital transformation.

Favorite Power Platform Story:
“I can think of two things. Number one would be The Power Platform School. Knowing that our cause positively impacts the community is rewarding. It is a labor of love and there are so many hats that I get to wear. As a co-organizer my roles and responsibilities range from Partner relations, content development, evaluating mentors and mentees, and attending weekly syncs with everyone involved in The Power Platform School. I enjoy collaborating with others – having such a strong team makes the entire process much easier. Second, is the work I did at a major oil and gas company where I was involved in leading the organization’s adoption of the Power Platform. This included developing solutions that provided major return-on-investment for a particular business unit. There were a wide range of use cases from inventory management to cash flow asset forecasting, internal credit checks, and approval processes.”

Favorite Career Quote:
“One of my favorite quotes is, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth,” by Muhammad Ali. My journey started with someone offering to mentor me. If you are going to be successful it starts with helping others. Second, because Microsoft has so many amazing technologies, pace yourself, keep an open mind, and always be eager to learn.”
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Ravon Lingard is Program Manager 2 for Power Automate focused on cloud flow portal experiences. She is an active member in the Digital Transformation Platform Chapter of BAM the ERG for Black and African employees at Microsoft, and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) where she enjoys helping students get into Tech. She has spoken at Microsoft 365 conferences and numerous customer tables at MVP Summit, Ignite, Power Champ, and Compass Connect. She is customer obsessed, but with a deep passion for helping underrepresented minorities achieve greatness.

Favorite Power Platform Story:
“One of my favorite Power Platform stories comes from a NSBE Hackathon. We had around 60 students there from all over the United States. They were learning to build Power Apps for the first time, with a plan to hack an app in under 2 hours which could help them to organize school activities. It was phenomenal to see them expressing their own creativity and building apps with their own style and twist. A few of them actually reached out after the hackathon to tell me how they are still enjoying working on their app from the event, to make it perfect for what they needed to manage at school. They were grateful to learn how to make apps, while I was grateful for their quick achievements, and acquired love for solving problems with Microsoft Power Platform.”

Favorite Career Quote:
“If you’re thinking of becoming a Program Manager at Microsoft one day, keep these two things in mind: 1. Ask questions (be inquisitive), and 2. Be OK with not always knowing or finding the right answers, while iterating and moving forward. Having both a growth mindset and an empathetic heart; you can achieve just about anything!”
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