Joe McDaid

About Joe McDaid

Spreadsheets sit at the center of how the world works, and I care deeply about making them more powerful, intuitive, and human.At Microsoft, I’ve helped lead Excel’s modernization across its core platform, calculation systems, and intelligence experiences. That work has spanned many of the changes that have reshaped how people use Excel today, including Dynamic Arrays, XLOOKUP, PIVOTBY, GROUPBY, Python in Excel, Copilot, and foundational investments in the Calculation and Dependency Engines.My background is an unusual mix of investment banking and financial modeling, an Australian CA qualification, and a computer science degree. It gives me both a practitioner’s empathy for users and a deep systems perspective, which shapes how I build products.Beyond the product itself, I’m deeply connected to the spreadsheet community as a founding member of ModelOff, the precursor to the Microsoft Excel World Championship, where I led question design for the competition.

Experience

1. Principal Pm Manager

   Microsoft

   Feb 2024 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

   I lead a team of Product Managers responsible for Excel\'s Core Intelligence and Platform Foundations.

Education

• University of Cape Town

  BSc, Information Technology (Computer Engineering)

  1999 — 2001

• University of Cape Town

  BCom, Financial Accounting

  2002 — 2002

• Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

  Chartered Accounting

  2008 — 2010

Skills

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Valuation
• Microsoft Excel
• Mergers
• Investment Banking
• Project Finance
• Vb.net
• Business Valuation
• Financial Modeling
• Corporate Finance
• Investments
• Forecasting
• Financial Accounting
• Finance
• Vba
• Sql
• Financial Analysis
• Business Analysis