It is with great pleasure that we get to announce the first member to be inducted into the 2022 class of the Maven Analytics Hall of Fame.

Congratulations Gerard Duggan!!

Before we get too deep into why Gerard was chosen for this rare honor, let's quickly review what the Hall of Fame stands for...

1) Maven Hall of Famers are committed to lifelong learning

2) They actively participate in Maven discussions and the broader data community

3) They consistently support and encourage others around them

4) They bring a positive energy to their learning and their work

In short, these are the people that make being a part of Maven such an enjoyable experience for both instructors and the entire student community.

If after reading this you're picturing someone who should be considered, then check out our call for nominations and let us know who we should be looking at. You've got until December 31st to nominate someone.

So what makes Gerard so special that he's just become the first person we've ever inducted ahead of the broader class induction?

Where to begin :)

Well, if you've been around our Data Challenges at any point, you're likely to know Gerard. He's participated in every challenge we've run over the last 12 months... wow! He's also placed as a Finalist multiple times in the Airlines Challenge, Remote Work Challenge, Super Bowl Challenge, Magic Challenge, Space Challenge, Taxi Challenge, Restaurant Challenge, and the Pizza Challenge. I might even be missing others! Plus, Gerard has been the overall winner of the Churn Challenge and the Unicorn Challenge, beating out hundreds of other entrants in both cases, and joining Zoe Douglas (a 2021 HOF inductee) as the only other 2 time winner. The quality of work is impressive, and the dedication and consistency is nearly unparalleled.

So is consistently rocking these Data Challenges the reason Gerard is being inducted into the Hall of Fame today?

It certainly doesn't hurt, but if you ask the anyone on the Maven team, they'd all agree it's not the top reason.

More than anything else, the reason we so admire Gerard is the absolutely stunning generosity with which he gives back to the data community.

That is the magic of Gerard Duggan.

Selfless, giving, and always there to support his fellow data people at every turn.

He's not just doing all of this for himself. He's doing it for YOU.

When you're stuck with a particular task, he's usually one of the first people jumping in there to help out.

Gerard has painstakingly document so much of his work, so that others can see his methods and take their own skills to higher levels.

You may have seen him sharing his planning steps for the Remote Work Challenge, which used a particularly difficult to navigate data set.

He also records video of his processes for you to learn from on his YouTube channel. You can see a great recording from the same Remote Work Challenge here:

Or maybe you've seen the detailed blog posts he puts together, like this one on his process for the Airlines Challenge:

You can see the full post and his website here

We could go on all day about his contributions, but you get the point.

He's helping on LinkedIn and sharing his work there. He's writing extremely thorough blog posts and recording detailed YouTube videos.

None of this is being done to sell a product or anything like that. Gerard doesn't have anything to sell you. He's just an awesome person who's put an enormous amount of energy into his own development and into bringing up the skill level of the entire data community.

On behalf of everyone at Maven Analytics, Gerard, thank you for everything that you do for this wonderful bunch of data professionals and enthusiasts. It's truly remarkable. We are all very grateful.