•Name: Juan Manuel Rojas Piedrahita 
                
•Affiliation: Journalist/Podcaster (self-employed) and Entrepreneur, working at Minka Digital as Director, Scouts Colombia

•Position applied for: NPOC Chair

•Why you are running for the position?:
As NPOC Chair, we have worked to improve our membership engagement through our sessions and webinars that we have led for NPOC and have spread to NCSG. As you should know, one year is a short period of time to fulfill all of our expectations.

We have also worked to update the database of our membership and have identified that less than 50 percent of organizations had their information correctly updated and their representatives' names. In terms of communication, we have been implementing automation tools to improve administrative tasks.

As a team, our ExCom is now more visible in policy efforts because we have enabled some of us to become active penholders and lead policy comment processes. We are working together to ensure NPOC becomes a prominent and influential voice representing not-for-profits within the ICANN ecosystem

Qualifications for the position:

I hold a BA in Journalism and a Msc on Information Technology Management.  I have acquired self-study skills such as design website, systems architecture, cybersecurity and business architecture, programming languages like Python and Ruby, which lead to the Information Technology sector.

I have participated in ICANN  since early 2011 when I was a member of the General Assembly for At-Large Latin American and Caribbean Regional Organizations (LACRALO). Since 2016 I have been involved in Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC), as former Policy Committee member for Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG), appointed Executive Committee for NCSG  and member of New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group. I also have participated as member in Working Groups such as: GNSO Drafting Team to Further Develop Guidelines and Principles for the GNSO’s Roles and Obligations as a Decisional Participant in the Empowered Committee, GNSO Locking of a Domain Name subject to UDRP and Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services to Replace Whois.

My experience has been serving on the Executive Committee of Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group  (NCSG) as well as the Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC), I also served as Communications Chair and Membership Chair. I was elected as a GNSO Councilor from 2020 to 2022 and Policy Chair.

Some of my academic experience includes my participation as a lecturer in academic events such as: ICEGOV (International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance) organised by United Nation University - UNU, in China (2010) and Estonia (2011). Also, I have been fellow of Internet Governance events and courses such as LACIGF (2011,2012 and 2014), South School of Internet Governance and Internet Governance Capacity Building Program.

•Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: None that I am aware
•How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position: As I have demonstrated in previous years, there is no minimum number of hours required for this position because I am willing to dedicate as many hours as necessary.

•Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state: Currently I am involved in Transfer Policy Review IRT, and SubPro IRT. I am also member of Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI).