SteelBlue Applications
Oleksandr Shapovalov
2015-2017 Lund University MSc Having been displaced by the war in Donbass in 2014, I relocated to Sweden as a Swedish Institute scholarship holder to pursue a master's degree at Lund University (Economics of Innovation)
2017-2022 United Nations Staff, Data Management Analyst In 2017, while completing my master degree, I joined UNDP as a Knowledge Management Consultant, where I was responsible for modernizing their SharePoint architecture across the HR and Finance domains. Drawing on the strong technical background I had built in my home country, I was able to deliver solutions well beyond the scope of my consultancy and had time to experiment with improving business processes.
During this period, I was actively experimenting with transforming existing business models to eliminate redundancy, manual work, Excel and paper-based processes. It was precisely then that Microsoft released its advanced business application suite — Power Automate (then MS Flow), Power BI, and Power Apps. As one of the earliest adopters of the platform and a "native" of this domain, I have been ahead of time creating state-of-art tools in this toolbox already in 2018-2019. In 2020, I assumed a role at Norwegian Refugee Council, which gave me an exposure towards broader responsibility for digital transformation across the entire organization - largest INGO in Scandinavia
2022 - till date Digital Transformation, Power Platform and AI Consultant
In 2022,the Siege of Mariupol devastated the life of my family once again, with my parents and family living through the blockade which claimed lives of up to 83 000 civilians through starvation and bombardment that left our city destroyed
Having picked myself up and having reunited with my parents who survived and came to Scandinavia as refugees, I shifted my career focus towards being a consultant in my major area of expertise - developing applications in Power Platform. Already within 2 years, I completed assignments with my alma mater UNDP (as the demand for PowerApps finally caught on), UNICEF, Asian Development Bank, MSF (Doctors without Borders), UN Secretariat
To be able to scale Power Platform solutions to more corporate and INGO actors, I embarked on starting my own IT Consultancy Companies in Sweden and Norway, specializing in Power Apps projects. This has enabled me to extend successful support to numerous actors across Scandinavia
During my assignment with UNICEF in 2023-2025, I was initially contracted to deliver 3 applications in 9 months, but ended up developing 12 digital applications in the first year. I pride myself in fostering the communities of practice and mentoring many of my fellow UN colleague towards the path of digital transformation and emerging tech.
To ensure my skillset stays up-to-date and in line with the latest developments in Microsoft tech stack, I further expanded my portfolio having supported large-scale Swedish holdings - ASSA ABLOY (3rd largest company in Sweden by turnover) and Alfa Laval