Better known online as “Mr. Excel”, Bill Jelen is the brains behind MrExcel.com.
Bill works with clients all over the world, designing custom Excel applications, solving their Excel emergencies and providing tips and hints that help Excel users get the most out of their spreadsheet applications.
Bill Jelen’s adventures in spreadsheets began while receiving his B.A. in Management from the University of Notre Dame. Bill was a teaching assistant, responsible for administering the world’s most difficult examination in Lotus 1-2-3. After months of grading exams for a research project and never finding an MBA candidate who could score more than about 60%, Bill set out to learn enough about Lotus 1-2-3 to ace the test.
After Notre Dame, Bill joined Telxon Corporation in Akron, Ohio. Over his 15-year career at Telxon, he held a variety of positions. As a Programmer, the applications he developed had an immediate impact on productivity and continued to be used in production for over twelve years – eons, really, in the programming world. Bill was promoted to Financial Systems Analyst. As a team member on a McKinsey & Company Consulting Study, he co-developed an Excel-based analysis model that saved the company $8.6 million in the nine years it was used. Bill also designed a margin analysis that exposed low-margin products, which allowed the company to save over $500,000 annually. In 1996, Bill was promoted to Director of Operations Analysis where he continued on his mission to improve productivity and free management from the tedium of manual data collection and reporting. He developed a pilot system in Excel in one day, launched it the next day, and eventually eliminated a high-level management position that managed the now-obsolete manual process. That application eventually grew to contain 2,400+ lines of VBA code and was managed with a single button click made daily by an administrative assistant.
Bill was awarded two patents while at Telxon; one was for a reversible keyboard for a handheld computer. Long before it was fashionable, Bill invented and patented a system to allow ordering of groceries over the Internet. Unfortunately, his employer took control of the patent in exchange for a fancy catered lunch and a $42 plaque for Bill’s office. Now he knows how Al Gore feels.
MrExcel.com was conceived in 1998 with Bill’s founding of Tickling Keys, Inc., a Microsoft Excel Consulting and Web Publishing practice. When he first launched MrExcel.com, he had no idea it would rocket to the nearly 10-million annual page-views it has today. Bill realized that while so many millions of people used Excel on a daily basis, few really knew about the incredible time- and work-saving power hidden behind the familiar grid – Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
Bill’s philosophy is simple, yet powerful. He sees himself as an Excel user – not a programmer. He believes that there are two ways to program any application: an easy way and a right way. The easy way may be quick and efficient from the programmer’s perspective, but the right way is intuitively obvious from the user’s perspective. And that is the addictive charm that continues to bring users back to MrExcel.com for more.
The MrExcel Network of Consultants has provided Excel, Access, & Microsoft Office applications software and automation to hundreds of clients. Now providing solutions for all Microsoft Office applications and Visual Basic programming, the MrExcel Network of Consultants has provided software and automation to over 200 clients in 2002.
Bill is co-author of “MrExcel ON EXCEL” (480 pages ISBN 0-9724258-3-7) and “Holy Macro! It’s 1,600 Excel VBA Examples” CD (ISBN 0-9724258-1-0).
Bill and his wife Mary Ellen live near Akron, Ohio with their sons Josh and Zeke. When he is not programming world-class applications, Bill is active in the Goodyear Lighter Than Air Society, The Drive In Theatre Fan Club, the Rotary Club of Lake Township, the Chambers of Commerce for Lake Township, Uniontown, and Akron, and the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Akron.