@NFD - Special Council Nomination 01/2024

Help & Resources Prior Elections
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Personal Information

Discourse ID: @NFD

Twitter: x.com

Country of Residence: UK

Nomination Statement

Concise statement on why you are running for the Special Council

Having spent the vast majority of my professional life in highly regulated TradFi institutions, including being a committee/board member responsible for the governance and oversight of regulated platforms, I am keen to bring my years of experience within operational frameworks to web3. More recently I have been an active DAO participant and have come to understand the areas which require the most support and vehemently believe that I can affect positive change within the foundation.

Motivation

Details on your motivation for becoming an ApeCoin DAO Special Council member

I have seen the good that the ApeCoin ecosystem has done and continues to do. My ardent belief is that we are only scratching the surface in terms of how and where ApeCoin can be utilised and I wish to be part of an esteemed group of councillors helping to facilitate meaningful initiatives for the broader community.

Rationale

Share relevant experience and skills that will bring value to the ApeCoin community

I have many years experience sitting on Oversight Committees, Diversity and Inclusion Councils and Leadership Councils for some of the largest names in finance. These positions - of which I am tremendously proud to have held - have shaped me into the objective, fair and balanced decision maker that I am today. I believe that I can, in conjunction with fellow Council Members, deliver meaningful, transparent and trust-based outcomes for the ApeCoin community.

Specifications

Further describe relevant experience, including crypto and governance participation, and/or ideas for DAO improvement

My time served as Oversight Committee Member (a voting position) within a large US bank saw me involved in governing the operations of an MTF ( a regulated trading platform) on behalf of itā€™s members. A relevant example of governance would be receiving product enhancement requests from members and following the proper decision making framework for delivery (acceptance) or not (rejection). Alternatively, Iā€™d often receive proposals from regulators and industry bodies with recommendations that could impact our member base - again, this would require careful consultation and due process.

I am drawing parallels in this example between running a venue on behalf of members and running a DAO on behalf of holders.

Concluding Statement

Summarize your statement as to why you are the best choice for Special Council

I believe I am the best candidate to fill a vacant seat on the Special Council because my real world experience gained over many years is uncommon in the web3 space. We are indeed ā€˜still earlyā€™ and where innovation and entrepreneurialism shines through in this wonderful web3 world of ours, governance, decision making frameworks and ethical leadership are relatively scarce.

My many years in growth focused positions will help to reframe the objectives of the foundation and unlock meaningful proposals which result in expansion of the DAOs efforts and relevance.

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Reserved for comments

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Can you expand what you would do in relation to this? What is the core function you see the Special Council should be doing?

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Thanks for the question, Bull. Aside from the well documented administrative oversight of the AIP process, I firmly believe Special Council should be proactively engaging with foundation stakeholders to find ways to improve operations, reduce costs and strengthen our ability to return value to the DAO.

In many ways, this position should act like a functioning director with departmental responsibility albeit without unilateral decision making capabilities.

This is why i firmly believe these seats should be occupied by individuals who have held leadership positions and have real world experience of optimising organisations.

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I have worked with NFD in the same project (Mutant Hounds/Mutant Cartel) for 9 months and he is a fair, pragmatic and unbiased individual. He comes with heaps of experience from a highly regulated tech and services industry and he is a person that has always shown integrity and support.

Being involved in one of the best Layer 2 Projects in Web3 will no doubt have a positive effect on the role as a whole and assisting with the growth of the DAO in our space, as a result of his experience. To include growing ApeCoin partnerships further.

I believe he is the perfect person to sit on the council, overhaul some of itā€™s functions and operations from both an improvement standpoint and scaling for the future. We need to move away from ā€œhandshakeā€ deals with whale votes and instead elect those that will actually serve a role in a democratic and structured way. And this will be for the good of everyone and not just for apes alone. He will ensure a stable and popular growth for the future prosperity of the ApeCoin DAO.

Dr Dave Coin

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Thank you for the kind words, Dave. I have thoroughly enjoyed our discussions regarding governance and web3 opportunities.

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From the tweet:

For those that followed my campaign earlier this year you will remember how vocal I was about the incorrect interpretation/assumption/understanding that a foundation company is legally unable to accept or receive income. That was 6 months ago! We have only just come to learn (officially) via a tweet from current incumbents that the foundation can indeed generate and accept income.

What specific strategies do you propose for the foundation to effectively generate income? How will these align with the core values and objectives of the DAO?

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With your experience in navigating complex legal and bureaucratic environments, how do you plan to apply these skills to overcome similar challenges within the ApeCoin DAO?

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I completely agree. My time working on the same team as NFD has shown him to be an incredibly savvy individual. He always keeps a level head and his creativity and problem solving have proven very useful in advancing the collective goal.

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Do you believe that the current communication channels between SC and stakeholders are sufficient or do they need to be improved to accomplish this engagement more effectively? Community engagement in the DAO has been on the rise as of late but could still use a considerable boost. Do you have any plans in this sector as well?

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NFD - excited to see you run! I am particularly to be able to share stages soon and bounce ideas off each other. I have no doubt that you would bring complimentary skills to the community and the SCā€™s role in being stewards of APE Foundation.

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Hi @NFD, I am asking all candidates the following same questions:

If elected, what is the one item you feel passionate about and would like to see accomplished during your tenure within the DAO?

What is an area of expertise that you will be bringing to the table?

Are there any factors in your life that may limit your time and ability to serve? (Running a business, extensive traveling, secret agent for the SEC, etcā€¦)

What is your least favorite thing right now with our DAO in its current state?

Currently, many of the proposals are determined by large wallets, there are many grumblings about it though I stand neutral on this; if possible, would you change this? and if so, how and why?

Will you be an active participant in the DAO even if unelected?

Thank you and best of luck,

F/S

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Iā€™ve personally witnessed NFDs leadership in the Mutant Cartel and believe his real-world experience will contribute significantly to the growth and relevance of the ApeCoin DAO. His knowledge, especially in the TradFi field, sets him apart in the web3 space, and I am confident that he can bring extremely valuable insights to the ApeCoin community, facilitating meaningful initiatives and driving the expansion of the DAOā€™s efforts. In addition to his professional qualifications, NFD is genuinely a great individual, embodying the qualities of a dedicated and trustworthy leader that I personally think will fit to the Council.

In NFD we trust!! :saluting_face: Good luck, mate!

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First thingā€™s first, it is all about instigating conversation and dialogue in a proactive manner. Iā€™m not one to sit and wait for conversations to find meā€¦ sounds simple, but one of the most underrated skills one can acquire in life is developing an ability to deploy professional challenge. Wrt regulation, the thing people often make the mistake of is accepting regulations or ā€˜rulesā€™ as gospel. Even the most stringent rules and laws are subjective and even more so their implementationā€¦ if you can find ways of flying close enough to the sun to catch a tan (forgive the analogy, Iā€™m on holiday) but keep far enough away to avoid becoming Icarus, you often find meaningful areas of change and opportunity.

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Thanks for the note, G. Hereā€™s hoping :pray:

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Hey F/S,

In order;

If elected, the one item i feel most passionate about is creating an environment and framework (with clear examples and rules of engagement for members) that supports growth of the DAO. Although the foundation is indeed a grants DAO, IMHO this dogged focus of simply giving out grants without an expectation of returned value has and will continue to kill the DAO.

Wrt to my expertise, I have operated at board level for regulated entities and have for the majority of my professional life been responsible for growth strategy and implementation. That has meant finding opportunities and challenging preconceived notions in order to scale whilst under legal and regulatory scrutiny.

Time commitment. I do not see any reason why I cannot affect the role in full and excel. Ultimately we should be judged on results - not purely by the clock - so i would expect to be transparent about the initiatives I am engaged in.

My least favourite thing about the DAO right now is that we have drifted too far into the decentralised waters out of principle. This has given past Special Council a convenient excuse for not getting things done citing ā€œwe only enact the will of the peopleā€. I vehemently believe that these seats need to operate with an owners mindset and should be treating the role like executive directors. We should of course work for members but simultaneously we should be finding efficiencies, opportunities and working cross-functionally to streamline processes too.

Voter distribution is a challenging subject. I donā€™t think there is a perfect solution but I do think we should look to implement voting guidelines based on the specific proposal. For example, a proposal.that materially impacts the DAO operationally or has an impact on ALL members would better suit a wallet based vote as opposed to a token based vote. There is also a conversation to be had for KYC inclusion.

If unsuccessful a second time round Iā€™ll be flooring all assets and deleting twitter :laughing:

Seriously though, I have been actively contributing since before the May elections and have continued to play a role, including a successful AIP.

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Thank you, Line! it would be remiss of me not to point out your significant contribution to the MC community too :heart_hands:

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Impressive real-world experience and it could potentially benefit the future our DAO! Wish you all the best man!

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