[Npoc-discuss] Candidate Statement of Interest for Oreoluwa Lesi

Wed Jun 5 10:11:35 UTC 2019

Thank you very much, Martin for nominating me and to everyone who 
seconded the nomination.

It has been a productive year working as NPOC Secretariat and we have 
put a lot of stucture in place and are ready to launch NPOC into a 
higher level of membership and policy engagement. I look forward to 
being part of this process.

Kindly find my statement below and I look forward to providing 
additional information in the candidates call on Thursday.

Best regards,

Ore

***************

*Name:* Oreoluwa Lesi

*Affiliation: *Women's Technology Empowerment Centre - W.TEC

*Position applied for: *Secretariat

*Why you are running for the position?:* I believe that the work that 
ICANN does is deeply important and my professional experience and 
interests place me in an excellent position to contribute meaningfully 
to achieving its goals.

Many nonprofit organisations do not fully understand what ICANN does and 
its relevance to their work. This means that they do not have the 
opportunity to get involved in shaping policies, which affects them. 
NPOC’s role in educating and galvanising nonprofits to greater 
participation in internet governance in general and domain name policy, 
more specifically, is crucial in maintaining a vibrant community that 
includes diverse perspectives and contributions – especially one where 
nonprofit concerns are valued as much as those of other stakeholders.

I bring with me deep experience in the nonprofit sector and understand 
their concerns, especially as it relates to technology and specifically 
Internet-related issues.

I have worked in the nonprofit space for 17years and lead a nonprofit 
(the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre – W.TEC 
<https://wtec.org.ng/>), whichworksto build an inclusive technology 
ecosystem, with more women technology creators, entrepreneurs and 
leaders. I also ensure that women and women-focused nonprofits are 
represented on the Internet, own and can manage their domains 
effectively, and understand how to address issues like domain name 
abuse, cybersecurity and privacy challenges. My work centers on 
increasing digital inclusivity in who can use the Internet safely and 
effectively to enhance their educational, professional and civic 
activities.

This means that I need to stay abreast of the changing domain name and 
wider technology policy landscape, especially as related to data 
security and privacy issues and their intersections withgender.Through 
ICANN, I have had the opportunity to be at the forefront of learning 
about the latest domain name systems and related policy and 
understanding how theyaffect the communities I work with.

Over the last year, I have servedas NPOC’s Secretariat and together, the 
Executive Committee and NPOC community have developed a strategic 
outreach plan to recruit new members, developed informational materials 
to educate the wider community about what NPOC does (which includes a 
booklet, flier and slide deck), rebuilt and launched a more informative 
and engaging website, organised well-attended sessions at ICANN64 and 
ICANN63, completed the revision of the new Charter document and renewed 
its commitment to policy development by successfully submitting a 
comment to the dot org registry agreement call for public comments.

Personally, I coordinated the documenting and monitoring of the EC’s 
huge workload, helping to keep team members on track with their 
respective action items. Iprovidedadministrative support, making 
available information about NPOC meetings and action plans to the EC and 
NPOC community. Recruitment and engagement of new members is very 
important to me and I co-organisedand moderated a panel discussionat the 
Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum, a leading African internet 
governance forum in April 2019, which alsoservedas outreach for NPOC.

Working as Secretariat has also provided me with a unique overview of 
and the opportunity to work across the broader NPOC landscape from 
finance to membership, policy, communications and administration. I 
believe that this experience will strengthen my ability to coordinate 
NPOC’s administrative tasks and provide more support where needed.

In my professional capacity outside of ICANN, I have led and worked as 
part of teams and have developed the project management and 
collaborative skills that are valuable for working in the Secretariat 
role. I am also a member of the Nigerian chapter of ISOC and Alliance 
for Affordable Internet, as well asISOC SIG Women. I am also a member of 
the Best Practices Forum on Gender and Access of the IGF and have 
contributed comments over the last year.

I ama _Vital Voices Lead Fellow_(awarded to emerging and established 
women leaders across the world) and an_Ashoka Fellow_(a network of the 
world’s leading social entrepreneurs). I speak frequently at Nigerian 
and international conferences and other fora on the intersection of 
technology and gender. I sit on several boards, including the FAS 
Foundation, which builds the capacities of Nigerian engineers and 
supports engineering research.

Within ICANN, I am also a member of the African Regional At-Large 
Organisation (AFRALO) and NCSG.

You can learn more about me and my work on my:

  *

    LinkedIn profile: _https://bit.ly/2ke8u78_

  *

    Organisation W.TEC’s website: _https://wtec.org.ng
    <https://wtec.org.ng/> _

  *

    ICANN Wiki page: https://icannwiki.org/Oreoluwa_Somolu_Lesi

*Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?:* No

*How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position:* At 
least 5 hours (As the current Secretariat, some weeks I devote up to 10 
hours or more to NPOC work)

*Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please 
state:*

Over the last year, I have been an active contributor to the rewriting 
of the NPOC Charter, working with the rest of the Charter Review team at 
public meetings and remotely in-between meetings.

I was part of the team that worked on NPOC’s comment to the dot org 
registry agreement call for public comments.

Prior to that, I was a mentee on the Community Onboarding programme and 
helped to refine the processes to integrate new members to NPOC. I also 
participated in an NCSG Policy course Advisory Group, where I 
contributed scenarios for the development of a NCSG Policy course.

-- 
Oreoluwa Lesi - Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC)
Executive Director

+234.803.621.1307, +234.813.339.9999 | www.wtec.org.ng | @wteconline

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/npoc-discuss/attachments/20190605/d1668e16/attachment.html>