Dirk Meert

Dirk Meert has a track record with the Microsoft SQL server stack in all its aspects for over 18 years, from development, server management to performance tuning and reporting.

In 1991, Dirk graduated from the KU Leuven with a Masters in Sciences. After 2 shorter employments, he started as developer with Test Aankoop in 1997. He helped develop the CMS for the first websites of the group, which enabled editors and analysts for the financial magazine to publish reviews and technical data on a variety of financial products. 

Over the following 20 years, this framework was expanded to also handle the other consumer products from Test Aankoop as well as handle a custom CRM and various other source systems, used to deploy content and product-selectors for the subscriber. The dozens of projects - which entailed gathering data from 3rd parties and integrating them with own content - gave Dirk a solid base in ETL- and Data Integration-processes within the Microsoft SQL Server platform, including Reporting Services.

He handled server installations and management for 10 years and later coordinated these activities for 5 more years. In the later years, he became part of the steering and supervising group which was tasked to create the Data Warehouse for the Euroconsumers group, to provide insights in subscriber fidelity and recruitment. He was responsible for explaining the source systems and coordinating technical implementation, which gave him sound fundamental insight in the concepts of data warehouse design and Analytics.

In 2018, he took a sabbatical to support his wife in a 3-year diplomatic mission abroad, changing continent, climate, and way of life resulting in a completely different view on the globe and its population.

Dirk started at element61 in March 2022 and initially focusses on the TimeXtender-technology and Power BI. By July 2022, Dirk is certified by Microsoft as 'Power BI Data Analyst Associate' and 'Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI'.