I just received some bad news and found out that a friend passed away today.  Reed Jacobson was one of the early leaders in the Microsoft Business Intelligence community.  Somewhere around 2004-2008 I worked with Reed at Hitachi Consulting in Seattle where we travelled, taught classes and worked on client projects together.  He was one of the earliest adopters and gurus in the BI community working for a small start-up called OLAP Train who helped bring SSAS (aka “OLAP Services”) to the masses.  He spoke at many conferences and taught a lot of classes.

Not only was he one of the smartest people I’ve known when it came to solving business problems with Analysis Service & MDX but he was a kind, friendly man who really enjoyed helping and connecting with people.  He wrote many books about data analysis with Excel & SSAS and he wrote the MDX training curriculum for Hitachi Consulting.  He was my mentor.  We co-taught some of those early classes and I spent some time with him on the road.  He bent my brain intellectually and we talked about work, family, politics and religion.  He was man of principles who asked questions and gave a lot of thought to his actions.

Reed left a lot more than a collection of old technical books behind.  He had many good friends, customers and connections who appreciate his leadership, guidance and friendship.  I am privileged to have worked with Reed.

A memorial will be held this Sunday, July 20 at 7:00 PM

Dr. Jose Rizal Park; 1008 12th Ave S, Seattle, Washington 98134