•Name: Bikram Shrestha
•Affiliation: Civil Society:  President- Nepal Internet Foundation, Professional- Head Digital Banking, Sanima Bank,
•Position applied for: Vice Chair
•Why you are running for the position: I’m the Founding treasurer and past president of Internet Society Nepal, Founder/President of Nepal Internet Foundation, Co-chair of Cooperation SIG APNIC, Vice chair of NepalIGF, Founder Treasurer of Information Technology Security Emergency Response Team; Nepal, Also, proud to inform you that we have successfully conducted APrIGF and APAN 2020 in Kathmandu. I have been actively contributing to the Internet Community for more than 2 decade and to the growth of the ICT sector in Nepal from the last 15 years through various policy advocacy and capacity building programs. First Nepal IGF and npSIG were successful programs that were conducted under my leadership. I was also a host member of APRICOT 2018.
I am the first fellow from my country for ICANN to start from the ICANN45 Toronto Meeting. My sole participation on three ICANN meeting as a fellow and involvement in different activities like IPv6, Security/DNSSEC, Privacy, Intellectual Property and enforcement, advocating for public interests in IDN- related policies, UA-tech and focused on global IGF, IANA, policy activities, law enforcement, Internet policies i.e. WHOIS & new gTLDs lead me to be encouraged to be a part of NPOC and seek opportunities to contribute good for the constituency, noncommercial users and civil society.
•Do you have any conflict(s) of interest: No I don’t have any Conflict of Interest
•How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position: As and when required I am available to contribute.
•Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state: UA- Tech Working Group (WG) members and other working groups too.

Step 3: Statement of Interest (SOI)
All nominees are expected to submit a brief statement explaining why they believe they are a suitable candidate and also must complete or update their Statement of Interest.

I am the current president of Nepal Internet Foundation in which capacity I have served for 2.5 years. I am nominated for Vice Chair of NPOC for the coming years. I can contribute to NPOC to achieving its goals and objectives by using my experience, my regional and global network and my energy.
If I am elected, I will bring a unique perspective from the Asia Pacific, enhancing NPOC’s diversity from all aspects and a regional perspective. I also try my best to improve its visibility into the challenges facing the billions of Internet users of APAC. The issues facing the Internet are common globally, but the impact it may have in the underdeveloped and developing world is bigger.
I can use my experience to help NPOC to closely work with dynamic teams and with other working groups. My experience comes from working with different stakeholders, including the private sector, the government, civil society, international organizations and academia will be the added advantage to bring NPOC to a new height. I believe my technical background will add a good combination for understanding the challenges of the Internet from a holistic point of view.
Security and privacy are and will be very important challenges for the present and future of the Internet. While different technical solutions may be developed, the biggest challenges in underdeveloped and developing economies is how to make these issues considered as a higher priority in the policy agenda.
NPOC will coordinate work with its members to become a trusted source of information for policy makers, which gives tools for developing policies for an open and trusted Internet.