Name: Samuel Garen
Pronouns: He / Him
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
I am an award-winning data analyst, project manager, and leader of data science and analytics teams, based out of beautiful Portland, Oregon. I make complex information understandable, actionable, and beautiful. Currently I help Grafana Labs execute analytics and engineering projects to glean insights from large data sets and make better decisions through reporting, visualization, modeling, and predictive analysis in support of the GTM organization.
I believe in stripping problems to their foundations and building from there, focusing first upon simplicity, ease of use, usefulness, quality, and understandability. The best designs are essential, intuitive, and effortless to use, and it is only through close communication, careful research, dismantling of preconceptions, and meticulous attention to detail that this may be achieved.
Stockholm, Sweden
Director of RevOps Analytics
November 2024–Present (1M)
Senior Manager of RevOps Analytics
October 2022–October 2024 (2Y 1M)
At Grafana Labs, I lead the company's data science, analytics, and data engineering capabilities within the Revenue Operations / GTM / Sales organization, partnering closely with Finance, Customer Experience, Marketing, and other cross-functional organizations to drive insights, ensure reliable access to critical operational data and metrics, and predict business performance and trends.
Herzogenaurach, Germany
Senior Manager of Data Solutions
May 2021–September 2022 (1Y 4M)
Manager of Data Solutions
December 2020–May 2021 (5M)
Manager, Business Performance Analytics
December 2019–December 2020 (1Y)
Assistant Manager, Business Performance Analytics
January 2019–December 2019 (11M)
At Adidas, after successful roles taking over the eCommerce division's Business Performance Analytics team, I founded a back-of-house data science and development studio called Data Solutions, delivering end-to-end support for our business partners in the eCommerce and Retail divisions, Omnichannel Analytics, various business units, and our executive suite. Our work spanned from construction of data sets and development of our data foundation, through automated reporting, dashboarding, and construction of tools, to advanced analytics, modeling, forecasting, and other data science projects. My team ensured our internal clients and external business partners had immediate and reliable access to key infomation, worked to elevate, contextualize, and prioritize key data from massive datasets for our partners, and provided critical insight into operational data to assist our partners in making data-driven decisions to steer the business.
Portland, Oregon, USA
Independent Consultant, Operations and Analytics
April 2014–February 2022 (7Y 11M)
Portland General Electric retained me as a consultant to assist with software solutions and data analysis for needs that could not be satisfied immediately by internal teams. Key projects included development of software tools to collect and parse arcane network performance data and aggregate this into readable reports, reducing labor for this reporting by 95%. Other projects included SQL training for internal business analysts, advisement on methodologies for producing actionable reporting based on available data, recommendations on best practices for research of non-communicative system nodes based on analysis of successful repair rates, and rapid-turnaround repair and support for preexisting scripts and other software tools.
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Senior Project Coordinator / Senior Project Lead
March 2018–December 2018 (9M)
Project Coordinator / Project Lead
September 2016–March 2018 (1Y 6M)
Project Coordinator
October 2015–September 2016 (11M)
At Epiq, I led multiple simultaneous projects to assist with recovery of damages related to large-scale, systematic banking fraud and other regulatory matters. Operating under intense regulatory and media scrutiny, these programs have successfully helped more than two million individuals and businesses recover over $2 billion USD, while assisting auditors with identifying patterns of fraud and potential additional areas of investigation. To support these projects, I also acted as client liasion and project advisor to technical teams on a SaaS legal claim database management tool for client and regulator use, heavily customized for each settlement project. These projects were among the most sophisticated the company handled, each with revenues between $1 million and $10 million annually.
Portland, Oregon, USA
Graduate Teaching Assistant
September 2012–March 2014 (1Y 6M)
At Portland State University, I acted as an assistant instructor in a series of undergraduate history courses, mostly concentrating on World History and the history of the Middle East. I received the honor from the professors I worked with to offer frequent presentations on the history of the Middle East to students, where I developed a presentation style characterized by bold, graphic typography, meaningful use of animation, and rich, rapid-fire imagery. I also polished skills in providing positive, constructive feedback and critique of ideas, which continues to serve me well.
Portland, Oregon, USA
Master's of Arts, History, Architectural History Focus (Unfinished)
For graduate school, I elected to continue my work in architectural history, focusing upon the use of visual symbol and motif to communicate across linguistic and religio-cultural lines in the medieval Middle East, with additional focus upon the network of logistics and trade established that provided inspiration and materials which have profoundly influenced the architecture and material culture of the Middle East. Unfortunately, the intensification of the Syrian civil war and resultant destruction of the structure that was to be a focus of my thesis has forced me to place further work on hold.
Portland, Oregon, USA
Bachelor's of Science, History, Architectural History Focus
Minor, Architecture
Additional Study, Civil Engineering
For my bachelor's degree, I knew I was excited about design, but did not immediately have a clear direction. I decided to build my own course of study by approaching design from three angles: civil engineering, architecture, and architectural history. I was honored to have work I produced in all three disciplines preserved in Portland State's archive as future teaching materials, as well as a number of designs presented by the School of Architecture to the National Architectural Accrediting Board in their successful arguments for accreditation.
Tableau
This report provides detailed product sales metrics, enabling easy comparison to forecast, along with other derived metrics such as margin, discount rate, and average sales price. Metrics are displayed at top level for easy consumption, visualized by a number of key product and sales channel attributes, and broken further into the top products contributing to overall sales. Selectors at left allow visualizations to be easily changed among modes to help the user understand where overperformance and underperformance to forecast are coming from and filters allow the user to quickly drill down into key products. Histograms at lower right inform how sales are distributed by price and margin to ensure sales are generated profitably. Product color data is incorporated to assist in identifying trends.
HTML / PHP
This Github repository contains the source code for this website, allowing review of the embedded PHP. The PHP within this page performs some silly trickery, such as dynamically generating the date range and duration for each job title shown above and sets the globe icon next to each employer or university's city and state above to a map centered on the actual location. I used construction of this portfolio site as an excuse to learn a bit more PHP, such as working with geodata and dynamic manipulation of SVGs.
eCommerce Division Peer Recognition Award
Q2 2022
eCommerce Division Peer Recognition Award
Q4 2021
Special Recognition for Exceptional Performance
Q4 2020
3-Cs "Confidence" Award for Outstanding Leadership
Q3 2019
Rockstar Graduate Teaching Assistant
Winter Term 2013
Rockstar Graduate Teaching Assistant
Spring Term 2013