The DevOps Collective has established a set of three awards to recognize and honor the contributions of community members who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to support and promote the PowerShell community. The awards are presented at the annual PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit. It is hoped that these awards will motivate and inspire members of the PowerShell community.

These are named awards with the intention of honoring their namesakes. The DevOps Collective Board of Advisors selected the inaugural recipients of these awards for 2024. Going forward, nominations are open to the community.

The Sean Kearney PowerShell Community Spirit Award

This award is given to a community member who has demonstrated exceptional spirit in the PowerShell community. This could be through their enthusiasm, their willingness to help others, or through other efforts that have helped to foster a sense of community and belonging.

The award is named after Sean Kearney, an early PowerShell enthusiast, MVP, and tireless advocate for the community. He was known for his boundless energy and passion for PowerShell. Sean eventually joined Microsoft and was a critical part of the early PowerShell scripting blog from Microsoft.

Inaugural 2024 Recipient: Steven Judd - A familiar face at the PowerShell Summit, always ready with a dad joke for any situation. His energy and enthusiasm for PowerShell and this community is palpable and infectious.

The Jeffrey Snover PowerShell Community Innovation Award

This award is given to a community member who has demonstrated exceptional innovation in the PowerShell community. This could be through the creation of new tools, the development of new techniques, or through other efforts that have helped to advance the state of the art in the community.

Jeffrey Snover is the inventor of PowerShell, and this award is named in his honor. The PowerShell community would not exist without his vision and innovation.

Inaugural 2024 Recipient: Doug Finke - Well known for his ImportExcel module which has surpassed five million downloads from the PowerShell Gallery. A leading advocate for integrating AI with PowerShell, he has written code, created learning content, and hosted events to help spread the word.

The Don Jones PowerShell Community Leadership Award

This award is given to a community member who has demonstrated exceptional leadership in the PowerShell community. This could be through organizing user groups, creating and maintaining community resources, or through other efforts that have helped to build and support the community.

The award is named after Don Jones, one of the founding fathers of the PowerShell community whose leadership and mentorship has been invaluable over the course of many years.

Inaugural 2024 Recipient: Gael Colas - One of the leaders of PSConfEU, the premier European PowerShell conference. A long-time active leader in the DSC Community.