Welcome back to ACE Spotlight, our weekly journey around the world to meet the people behind the expertise of the Oracle ACE community.
One of the things we want this series to celebrate is that there is no single type of Oracle ACE. Our community brings together people from different countries, cultures, career paths, generations, and areas of expertise — but with something important in common: a passion for learning, sharing knowledge, and helping others.
Our journey began in the United States with Rhianna Albert, before taking us to Cambodia to meet Voeurng Sovann. This week, we’re heading to Middelfart, Denmark, to meet
Oracle ACE Director Kim Berg Hansen
— a developer, author, SQL enthusiast, beer lover… and former Wild West sheriff!
🌍 Where in the World Are You?
I’m based in Middelfart, Denmark.
The name means “the middle place to cross the water,” and Middelfart is one of only four places in the world where you can take a guided walk on top of the steel structure of a bridge.
🎉 Three Fun Facts About Me
At home, the kitchen is my domain. Cooking for my wife and myself gives my brain a chance to relax and do some background processing.
I’m also a beer lover and a member of the Danish Beer Enthusiasts Association. I’ve slowly started a project to brew, in real life, the fictional beers I invented as sample data for my book, Practical Oracle SQL.
And for five summers, I was the Wild West-style sheriff of Legoredo Town at the original LEGOLAND in Billund, Denmark.
Yes, really — sheriff! 🤠
☕ My Perfect Weekend
My perfect weekend is split into two.
One day is spent working in the garden with my wife.
On the other, we’ll take an excursion somewhere, relax, go for a walk or two, enjoy some food and beer at cafés or restaurants, and do a little people-watching.
⭐ ACE Since…
I became an Oracle ACE on December 22, 2015.
🚀 My Oracle Journey
My professional career as a developer started around 30 years ago, doing customizations in an old Danish ERP system called Concorde XAL.
It had its own proprietary language, development environment, and native database, but customers who needed it could also store their data in an Oracle Database.
When I later got a permanent job with one of my former customers, my first project was to build a webshop fully integrated with the Concorde XAL installation. That wasn’t really possible using the system natively.
But by using the underlying Oracle Database, anything was possible.
So I taught myself SQL and PL/SQL — with a little help from Tom Kyte’s books — and built the solution.
From there, we started doing more and more directly in Oracle, and over time I became pretty good at SQL and PL/SQL.
💡 One Oracle Tip Everyone Should Know
Don’t treat the database simply as a place to store tables and run basic SQL.
Oracle Database can do so much more — functionality that you already have available to you — so use it.
And SQL itself can do vastly more than it could 30 years ago.
Learn what modern SQL can do for you. Doing more efficiently inside the database can also mean using fewer computing resources — and, in the cloud, that can translate into savings.
🛠️ A Project I’m Proud Of
I’m a SQL guy, so one of my most memorable projects comes down to a SQL statement.
We called the solution WheelGuide.
It was part of the webshop I mentioned earlier. A customer could enter which car they drove, and WheelGuide would determine which rims and tires in stock would fit that particular car.
But it did much more than simply match a car with a wheel.
The result included information about which bolts to use, how much the tire circumference would affect the speedometer reading, how much weight the rims could support, inventory at each store, prices, offers, and much more.
All of that business logic was squeezed into one optimized SQL statement of roughly 1,000 lines.
But what I’m proudest of isn’t its size.
It’s its longevity.
Because we put the business logic into SQL, that statement has been running practically unchanged for more than 20 years.
The front end has changed from Java applets to Shockwave Flash to HTML5 to C#/.NET — but the backend logic has remained the same SQL statement all these years.
📚 What I’m Learning Right Now
Python.
Even after decades as a developer, there is always something new to learn.
💬 Ask Me About…
Ask me about SQL and PL/SQL — and a little bit of Oracle APEX, too.
If you already know some SQL but want to progress beyond SQL-92 and start using more modern SQL capabilities, you might also consider my book, Practical Oracle SQL.
It’s not a beginner’s book, but if you already have some SQL knowledge and want to go further, it may be for you.
And, appropriately enough, it’s also all about beer. 🍺
🌟 Advice for Aspiring Oracle ACEs
Start by thinking about the community.
Think about how you can get involved, both in person and online. Consider what you can do for others and how you can build connections.
The benefits you receive in return can be many times greater and often come naturally as a side effect of getting involved.
Once you know what you want to contribute to the community, the Oracle ACE Program can help and become a way to accelerate that community journey.
🤝 Let’s Connect!
You can find my different contact channels here:
This week, ACE Spotlight took us to Middelfart, Denmark, and into a world where SQL statements can live for more than 20 years — and fictional database beers can eventually become real ones. 🍺
Kim’s story is a wonderful example of something we see again and again across the Oracle ACE community: expertise grows through curiosity, experience, and a willingness to keep learning — but its impact grows when that expertise is shared with others.
From teaching himself SQL and PL/SQL to solve a real business problem, to writing Practical Oracle SQL and sharing decades of experience with the community, Kim has turned a deep enthusiasm for SQL into knowledge that others can use.
Did you miss our previous ACE Spotlights?
🌟 Meet Rhianna Albert, Oracle ACE Pro, in the article that started our journey:
Read Rhianna’s story →
🌏 And meet Voeurng Sovann, Oracle ACE Associate, the first Oracle ACE from Cambodia:
Read Sovann’s story →
Next Wednesday, our international journey continues as we meet another person behind the expertise — with a new location, a new Oracle story, and a new perspective to share.
Where will ACE Spotlight take us next? 🌎