Dr. Everest's career objective has always been to help managers manage.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, April 18, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Gordon Everest has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Backed by years of professional experience in law, education, and more, Dr. Everest excels as the owner of GEMS, specializing in educational services and consulting, an expert legal witness for several law firms, director emeritus for DAMA Minnesota, and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. There he developed and taught courses relating to data management, structures, security, administration, warehousing, visualization, DBMS, and ER and relational modeling. Then his focus turned to advanced data modeling using Object Role Modeling which he deems a far superior method for "data" modeling. He argues that using the phrase "data" model is misleading since, in reality, it is modeling some real-world user domain – the objects, relationships, and constraints or business rules in some domain of interest – using data constructs. He has amassed several years of his recorded lectures at the University of Minnesota and is currently posting them online. Over the years, he also honed his skills in consulting with the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Although his approach to teaching was unconventional at the time, Dr. Everest encouraged collaboration in and out of the classroom, creating supportive and inclusive learning environments in which students could thrive by helping each other. Dr. Everest employed the methodology for data modeling based on the work of Terry Halpin, author of the textbook "Information Modeling and Relational Databases." Dr. Halpin invited Dr. Everest to write the foreword to his textbook's upcoming third edition (2024).
Dr. Everest's career objective has always been to help managers manage. As he explained, "I realized early on that the key is not the computer or the information systems software, it was the data, so I quickly zeroed in on how we collect, store, manage, validate, and report data to managers who make decisions and people in running businesses. That is the key to these systems, helping managers manage."
During the early stages of his career, Dr. Everest gained valuable expertise in accounting and technology as the coordinator for the HUD Information Systems Project at the University of Minnesota, consultant for Auerbach Corp., and an accounting clerk for Shell Oil of Canada E&P. In this capacity, he filled out coding sheets with information to pass on to the data processing department. Due to his fascination with the computer programming aspect of the job, he decided to pursue a career in the computer industry.
An expert in his field, Dr. Everest penned "How Computers Can Help Managers Manage" (1959) during his first year at the University of Alberta where he went on to earn a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting and mathematics. Subsequently, he received a Master of Science (SM) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan school and a PhD in business information systems from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton school. His 150-page master's thesis on data structures was required reading at the MIT Information Systems Program. Dr. Everest's doctoral dissertation, "Managing Corporate Data Resources," (1974) became a McGraw Hill textbook in Database Management.
His major publication was entitled "Database Management: Objectives, System Functions, and Administration" (McGraw-Hill, 1986). At 816 pages, this comprehensive textbook went through five printings. Dr. Everest also compiled "Readings in Management Information Systems" (McGraw-Hill, 1976) with Gordon B. Davis, focusing on the classic articles which formed the underpinnings of this newly emerging discipline.
Driven to remain abreast of changes in the field, Dr. Everest aligns himself with the Society for Management Information Systems, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, CODASYL, and the American National Standards Institute. As a member of the Data Privacy Committee of AFIPS, he provided advice and counsel to legislators in the state of Minnesota, which passed the nation's first data privacy law in 1974 April.
Alongside his work, Dr. Everest contributes to his community as a founding and active member of Giving Voice Chorus, established to give voice to people with Alzheimer's and their care partners singing together. As a member of the Roseville School District's special advisory committee, he and other computer savvy individuals made recommendations to the school district on how to set up a computer lab and use computers in the classroom at each grade level (1970!). Since public school, he remains an enthusiastic barbershop singer including delivering Singing Valentine's for the past 20 years, as well as an avid badminton player recently turning to pickleball.
In light of his professional accomplishments, Dr. Everest was named Boss of the Year by the American Business- Women's Association in 1978 and was twice awarded the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award from DAMA International. In the coming years, he intends to continue writing, focusing on engaging in social media to promote critical thinking about "data" modeling and data management. Ultimately, Dr. Everest aims to remain engaged with working and aspiring professionals all about data modeling, in particular, Fact Modeling and the ORM variant. He enjoys presenting to EDW, DMZ, and local DAMA chapters, and connecting with data modelers in the discussion.
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