About Us
The Kimball Group is the definitive source for dimensional data warehousing expertise. We organized in 2003 to respond to the increased demand for quality dimensional data warehouse consulting and education. The Kimball Group formalizes existing long-term relationships between Ralph Kimball Associates, DecisionWorks Consulting, and InfoDynamics LLC.

We are a team of dedicated data warehousing professionals, bringing 100+ years of devoted experience to bear. For more than two decades, we have focused on developing, teaching and applying dimensional data warehouse design techniques for IT business intelligence professionals through consulting, writing and education.

Kimball University, operated by the Kimball Group, offers public and on-site data warehouse classes based on our best-selling books and extensive hands-on consulting experience. We are committed to providing the highest quality, most practical data warehousing education.

Ralph Kimball () is known worldwide as an innovator, writer, educator, speaker and consultant in the field of data warehousing. He has remained steadfast in his long-term conviction that data warehouses must be designed to be understandable and fast. His books on dimensional design techniques have become the all time best sellers in data warehousing. To date Ralph has written more than 100 articles and columns for Intelligent Enterprise and its predecessors, winning the Readers’ Choice Award five years in a row.

After receiving a Ph.D. in 1972 from Stanford in electrical engineering (specializing in man-machine systems), Ralph joined the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). At PARC Ralph co-invented the Xerox Star Workstation, the first commercial product to use mice, icons and windows.

Ralph then became vice president of applications at Metaphor Computer Systems, pioneering decision support software and services provider. As a hands-on manager, he developed the Capsule Facility in 1982. The Capsule was a graphical programming technique which connected icons together in a logical flow, allowing a very visual style of programming for non-programmers. The Capsule was used to build reporting and analysis applications at Metaphor.

Ralph founded Red Brick Systems in 1986, serving as CEO until 1992. Red Brick Systems, now owned by IBM, was known for its lightning fast relational database optimized for data warehousing. Ralph Kimball Associates incorporated in 1992 to provide data warehouse consulting and education.

Julie Kimball () handles most business affairs for the Kimball Group, largely working behind the scenes. Julie, however, is also interested in data-warehouse related issues. She has attended many data warehousing events, reviewed nearly all the books in data warehousing and has attended Kimball University classes. Julie was the catalyst behind The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit as she recognized the need for a follow up to the original Toolkit.

Julie has worked with Ralph since 1986 when he founded Red Brick Systems. She managed administration and human resources at Red Brick through 1991. Julie has a B.A. in Spanish from Stanford and an M.A. in Speech and Language Pathology from San Jose State. She worked as a speech therapist for several years and especially enjoyed teaching reading and language comprehension.

Margy Ross () is President of the Kimball Group. She has focused exclusively on decision support and data warehousing for more than twenty years, specializing in program/project strategy, business requirements analysis, and dimensional modeling. Since helping over 100 large organizations with their data warehouses, she remains convinced that business acceptance is the true measure of data warehouse success.

In addition to her consulting activities, Margy teaches the core Kimball University public classes and on-sites, both domestically and internationally. She co-authored The Data Warehouse Toolkit, 2nd Edition and The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit and regularly writes the Data Warehouse Designer column for Intelligent Enterprise.

Before launching the Kimball Group, Margy co-founded DecisionWorks Consulting, Inc. in 1994 with Bob Becker and Nancy Rinn. She had previously worked at Metaphor for ten years in a variety of consulting and management positions, including responsibility for Metaphor’s Customer Database Marketing business unit. Margy began her career with Arthur Andersen (now Accenture) Consulting. She graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

Bob Becker () has worked with business managers and IT professionals to prioritize, justify and implement large-scale decision support and data warehousing systems since 1990. Regardless of the industry, he is highly skilled at identifying business requirements, facilitating organizational consensus and designing dimensional data models. Bob leverages these consulting experiences when teaching the Kimball University on-site courses.

Before co-founding DecisionWorks, Bob worked at Metaphor. He also held various sales and management positions with Oracle, Tandem Computers, IBM and Data General. He graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Business with a BSB in Marketing.

Joy Mundy () has focused on data warehousing and business intelligence since the early 1990s, specializing in business requirements analysis, dimensional modeling, and business intelligence systems architecture. Joy co-founded InfoDynamics LLC, a data warehouse consulting firm, then joined Microsoft WebTV to develop closed-loop analytic applications and a packaged data warehouse.

Before returning to consulting in 2004, Joy worked in Microsoft SQL Server product development, managing a team that developed the best practices for building business intelligence systems on the Microsoft platform. Joy began her career as a business analyst in banking and finance, and has never worked at Metaphor. She graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Economics, and from Stanford with an MS in Engineering Economic Systems.

Nancy Rinn () has data warehousing roots that also go back more than 20 years. After working for marketing research companies in the 1980s, Nancy went to Metaphor where she managed numerous data warehouse design and implementation consulting projects. She co-founded DecisionWorks with Bob and Margy in 1994. After semi-retiring, we’re all thrilled to be working with Nancy once again as our Communications Coordinator, handling all communication with Kimball Univesity alumni and Design Tip subscribers. Nancy graduated from the University of Minnesota with BAs in both History and Social Sciences.

Warren Thornthwaite () has been building decision support and data warehousing systems since 1980. Warren worked at Metaphor for eight years, where he managed the consulting organization and implemented many major data warehouse systems. After Metaphor, Warren managed the enterprise-wide data warehouse development at Stanford University. He then co-founded InfoDynamics LLC, a data warehouse consulting firm. Warren joined up with WebTV to help build a world class, multi-terabyte customer focused data warehouse before returning to consulting.

In addition to designing data warehouses for a range of industries, Warren has extensive experience helping clients develop scalable, practical information access architectures. Warren holds an MBA in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and a BA in Communications Studies from the University of Michigan.