Learn more about one of our 2020 Distinguished Service Award winners – Roy Swonger! Distinguished Service Awards are given to members of the community who have been recognized as those who embody Quest’s core values.
With the current environment in mind, our community depends on individuals and companies that go above and beyond for others now more than ever. It seems like a fitting time to recognize those that have been distinguished contributors to our community over the past year.
There were Distinguished Service Awards given out within these 11 categories:
- Quest Chairman’s Award
- Newcomer Award
- User Group Distinguished Service Award
- Customer Content Contributor Distinguished Service Award
- Oracle Employee Distinguished Service Award
- Business Partner Distinguished Service Award
- Quest Networking Distinguished Service Award
- Standing Ovation Award
- Friend of Quest Award
- SELECT Journal Editor’s Choice Award
- Ken Jacobs Award
Roy was awarded the Ken Jacobs Award, which goes to an Oracle employee who has affected the success of the database and technology community through his or her support of the organization.
Thank you to Roy and the rest of this year’s award winners for their time and service!
2020 Distinguished Service Award Winner: Roy Swonger
Tell us a little about your company.
I started working with Oracle when DEC Rdb was acquired back on December 2, 1994. I think everybody knows the company, but what they may not know is that about half of the people who were part of that acquisition are still with Oracle more than 25 years later, contributing to areas such as Data Guard, RMAN, Upgrade, Data Pump, Spatial and Graph, Big Data SQL, and more.
What is your job title and what do you do in your role?
My title is Vice President, Database Upgrade, Patching and Utilities. I am in the unique position of leading both product management and development for an area, which I enjoy because it means interacting with customers as well as seeing projects through from conception to production. I manage development teams for database upgrade, Datapatch, Data Pump, SQL*Loader, Transportable Tablespaces, and the Metadata API. Jointly with my colleagues in support, I initiated the Proactive Upgrade and Migration Assistance (PUMA) program several years ago. PUMA helps customers who have dedicated CSMs to adopt best practices on their first major upgrade to a new database version. In my product management role, I work with customers directly on reference projects, present at conferences and user groups, and bring enhancement requests and requirements back to development as the voice of the customer.
What Oracle product do you use and what do you like most about it?
I have managed the Database Upgrade and Utilities area for about 17 years now and took on responsibility for Datapatch in early 2019. What I like most about the areas that I am involved in is that they are used by literally every Oracle customer, but conversely that they are included as part of your support license. That means that I don’t get involved in pricing — who wouldn’t like that?
How long have you been involved with Quest?
My first Collaborate conference was probably 2013 in Denver — at least, that is the first one for which I still have my presentations on hand (that was about migrating to this new thing called “multitenant” if anybody is interested. :-)). I think it likely that I was involved with the user group before then, but many laptop switches later some of those records have been lost.
How have you benefit from being part of Quest Oracle Community?
From the Oracle side of the house, the absolutely crucial benefit of being part of this community is the interaction with customers who actually use our products. I always tell my developers (who may be sick of hearing this), “we know how it’s built, but customers know how it actually works.” Injecting the real world into the development process is the only way to ensure that we are building features and solutions that meet customers’ needs. Not that we can always say Yes, mind you — some things are technically not feasible, too niche to justify the effort, or have tradeoffs that would affect other customers negatively. But being part of the Quest Oracle Community help prevent us from implementing clever ideas that nobody will use and focus on things that really matter to our customers.
What’s one interesting fact about you?
Back in 2007, after a family trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota, it struck me that just that trip took us through 12 states and that with family around the country, we had been to about two dozen states as a family. That motivated us to embark on the goal of visiting all 50 states before my eldest went to college — a goal we achieved with a vacation to our 50th state (appropriately, Hawaii) in 2012. Based on having visited all 50 states, I can confidently say that no matter where you go, there is something interesting to see and do, good food to experience, and great people to meet.
Do you have any children or pets?
I am married (32+ years now!) with two kids age 25 and 21. The older just received her Masters in Animal Science and is considering a few offers from the USDA as well as interviewing with various research organizations and companies. The younger will receive their BFA in Acting in May and will be working as Assistant Company Manager for NY Stage and Film. While I love animals (especially dogs, being highly allergic to cats), I travel too much to have a pet.
Thank you again to this year’s award winners for everything you do for the Quest Oracle Community!
Additional Resources
The Quest Forum Digital Event was designed to bring our community the great education and networking showcased during the Quest Forum at COLLABORATE in a virtual format. While we’ve missed seeing you all in person, we’re thankful that we get to continue to engage with you during these difficult and trying times, and we hope that you are staying safe and healthy! We hope to see you at our Community Education Weeks over the next few months! Browse the sessions and register today!
- Oracle Cloud Week: May 27-29, 2020
- PeopleSoft Week: June 1-4, 2020
- Professional Development and Emerging Technology Day: June 5, 2020
- JD Edwards Week: June 8-11, 2020
- Training and Workshops: June 12, 2020
- Database & Tech Week: June 15-18, 2020