→ LinkedIn profile URL (Professional) : https://za.linkedin.com/in/josia-engelbrecht-21561755
While on my LinkedIn profile please have a look at my visual pdf summary about myself for more information.
→ Upwork profile (Freelance) : https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01702bf658f243ea41
I have not been freelancing for more that a year now. I was part of the Top Rated Freelancers.
I have worked on multiple project throughout the world: USA, Australia, Dubai, Hungary, New Zealand, Spain and South Africa.
○ Introduction ○
Hi all, my name is Josia Engelbrecht :
• I am 35 years old
• Caucasian male
• Married, with 2 Children
• I am from South Africa (Cape Town)
• Fluent in English and Afrikaans
• Able to do almost anything ;-), there ain’t no mountain high enough
• My Gamer name = Ravenfields, has and always will be.
Integrity, one of the moral principles that has stuck with me from a young age. Where ever I find myself, be it at the office, at a social event, at a family gathering, where ever it might be that one precious principle defined my actions and my future.
From a personal view point I am an open minded, self-motivated individual. I believe in moral values and have a strong character. I believe one needs to have humility as a core characteristic and at the same time have confidence in oneself. Being respectful towards others, automatically instils honour, dignity and trust; these are values that my foundation is built on. I have always been a quick learning and taking all relevant information into account I come up with a suitable solution always weighting up the risk and benefits.
I am a diverse person that has a unique combination of skills and experience that are derived from these sectors: Information Technologies, Banking, Insurance, Finance, Business and Corporate.
From these I have gained and improved on valuable skills:
Software Development,
Business Acumen,
Human Resource,
Management,
Leadership,
Governance,
Administration
Research,
Customer Service,
Soft skills etc.
Each skill I have trained to a certain level, through personal experience, constant studying and improved understanding. I always approach problems and implement solutions in a professional business orientated manner. Growing myself by gaining knowledge and experience will be a never-ending goal of mine.
○ Why NEM ○
Well I started my blockchain journey in late 2016 wearing my investing hat. I started researching and collecting data on crytpo coins and tokens. Right of the bat, one coin that stood out was XEM. After doing more research I could clearly see that Nem was a sleeping giant. Nem always seem to be one step ahead in tech and clearly focused on laying down a solid foundation. 2 Key factors that I deem to be important. Why, because they had solid members leading the way and clearly, genius level Devs, all dedicated and clearly loyal to the community. These are rare treasures in the blockchain world and the cherry on top, they have been through the furnaces (Crypto market, dark ages).
Since then I have been an active Nember. I was there when Ecobits, Dimcoin, Chronobank started, then Xarcade, Qchain etc.
○ Ok so what is the Plan ○
The Vision
► To add value to the NEM Community by taking all that I have learnt through the years and investing into NEM, while at the same time keeping on improving and gaining knowledge and hopefully sowing back through mentoring and constant support for NEM and the community.
The Mission
► Keep NEM in the forefront in the blockchain world, ensure it becomes the open Giant it aimed to be. Keep NEM true, focused and community driven.
The Goals
Side Note : It is quite hard to make promises on the goals as there are a lot of information lacking to make promises at this point. Information like the laws governing the foundations. Internal and external organization structure, level of authority, accountability etc.
So keeping that in mind, here we go:
► First logical step would be to obtain above information, work through all of it and get a better understand of how NEM operates, what the current goals are and what the rules are that governs NEM.
► Next get a common understand and trust going between myself and the newly elected council.
► Next as a council get in touch with the Devs. Where are we at? What is the expectation? Any major issues being blocked? Then formulate an agreement, i.e. what is most important, when and how often we can have formal communication sessions, etc.
► Throughout all the goals there should be a constant theme, keep the community updated where legally allowed. I do not care if it is me, or another council member or an entity that has been given the responsibility to keep the community up to date.
At the end NEM exist because of the community and the community exist because of NEM, a beautiful symbiotic relationship, a living organization and a living community.
► I want to push to put a policy/procedure in place to be able to get input from the community. How will we be collecting the social genius of the community and integrating their feedback into the Foundation into the future of NEM.
How will we ensure we relay this information back to the community? The fact that we are taking their input into account and making use of it. etc.
► Planning and launching off the highly anticipated Catapult.
► Looking into the Budget and available funding accounts and see how best we can start utilizing these funds for the next 5 to 10 years.
► If possible, start to add some more developers to start building/improving on the library, plugins, mobile wallet, add more features, ensure code quality is kept, improve on CI/CD where required, research, innovate, improves etc.
► Being a Business Intelligent person I want to put some form of reporting in place, to be utilized by the council, NEM partners and the community. We need to be able to make quick decisions with the most up to date, quality information. We need to be able to indicate to the community, visually, on important metrics.
► Getting more involved with NEM Ventures, understand their progress and stay up to date about what is happening.
► Get a system in place that gives feedback on all the startups funded by the NEM foundations. How they are progressing, what is new, keep those connections live and happening.
► Being in South Africa I want to start pushing NEM, present at blockchain meet ups, represent NEM at any Africa blockchain conferences, start building solutions in Africa.
► Start pushing NEM African, support NEM where ever a viable opportunity. Talk to the Africa community and start formulating a strategy.
► If there is one thing, I have learnt so far in life, it is, you cannot do everything yourselves (nor do I want to). I want to make use and support of my other council members, make use of their strengths. Other candidates have raised important matters already, some technical, so governance issues, some communications. Issues that I honestly did not identify nor know about before they raised it. i.e. Tony about the namespace expiry issues, valid concern.
My hope is that with having regular discussion with the council and community, that we can stay on top current issues, identity future issues, keep on improving and innovation. See it all through, thought constant communication and planning. Agile at it’s best.
► See how best we can bring the other NEM bodies closer aligned in our way forward.
► Then one more important issue raised by the community recently, the current Elections process. Needs to be looked into and together with the community a new Election process should put in place.
Lastly, I would like to send out a big thanks to Nem (Devs, Council. Partners, Employees, Community and all others) for their contributions in blood, sweat and tears that has put Nem on the map!
It would be an honour to server such a great Nem community
P.S.
I did not spell honour incorrectly, it is British English spelling 
I will upload a video on Youtube over the weekend (17th 18th ) and will share it in the forums and in the chat channels, so keep a lookout for it.
Best of luck and best of wishes to all the candidate running, may this be a fair, fun and fearless elections.
Shout out to the other candidates so far on the forum.
@Inside_NEM → It’s gone be tough and I am routing for you to either be Pres or Vice !
@tongokongo → Thanks for all the effort so far, have been a subscriber since day 1 !
@Mark_Price → Hell yeah for stepping up to the plate sir, you have been contributing a lot !
@Trikar_Blockchain → Sir, I have become familiar with you via the forums, chat channels and hope I see you soon in a meeting 
@LauraBKK → Laura, to be honest I did not know much about you, now that your running for secretary we get to see more of who you are, so thanks and best of luck.
Ravenfields out.
