Adaku Agwunobi - Platform Statement

Governance Catalyst Circle Platform Statements
1

Do you have, at least 6 months, or more experience in Project Catalyst?

Yes

Describe the Community Roles in which you have participated at Project Catalyst (e.g. Voter, Proposer, PA, vPA, Challenge Team, etc.)

Voter, Proposer, PA

What key ideas or issues would you like to champion as a representative at the Catalyst Circle?

  1. Proposal Assessors and (2) Funded Proposals

I am particularly interested in the opportunity that Cardano provides to society via Proposal Assessment especially within the African continent. I love how the process also encourages blockchain education too and I think it’s really cool how it’s so similar to VC due diligence. The practice of proposal asssessment in itself is quite entrepreneurial and I believe it adds value to both the proposer and assessor. There are definitely some areas for improvements through proposal assessment that can help to shape Project Catalyst as a whole.

The foundation of Cardano is very much associated with top academic rigour. My name is Dr Adaku Jennifer Agwunobi, I have 4 degrees and was the first Black doctoral researcher to obtain a PhD at my previous campus (Loughborough University London) and I passed my PhD viva in a record breaking 2 years and 10 months. My PhD thesis entitled “Entrepreneurial health and wellbeing in the digital economy: an intersectional critical realist investigation” primarily focused on the well-being of Black female tech entrepreneurs and I also interviewed many entrepreneurs from Nigeria. I have two Master’s degree’s, the most recent being MSc Health Economics and the first being MSc Marketing. Also, my first degree was BSc (Hons) Economics! I also did a Postdoc in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford where I worked on on orthopaedic clinical tooling. One of the running themes of everything I did is the well-being of society and I truly believe Project Catalyst and the Cardano ecosystem has strengths that contribute to this in a number of ways. I have a huge entrepreneurial and creative spirit alongside my strong research background. Skills that are important for Catalyst Circle.

To that end, I have the ability to bring value to Cardano in a number of ways, including sharing various community perspectives. I have been involved in the ecosystem for over a year and have particularly been strongly engaged through being a key team member of the Oxford University Cardano Student Hub.

The pursuit of exploring innovative approaches and unique ideas comes naturally to me and I have a solid understanding of its foundations and objectives. I have been impressed with the efforts in the African continent especially, as mentioned.

To that end, I have had endless experience in coordinating groups and representing them via societies (led and been active members) especially and beyond in practice. I am very analytical and can suggest improvements on plans and processes that shape Project Catalyst. I will represent the interests of the communities that I come from and will provide my community’s perspective rather than a personal opinion.

How do you intend to measure your engagement?

Here some examples and suggestions for effective reporting

I will measure engagement via effective reporting in a number of ways:

Firstly, I will use the template in the catalyst circle reporting repo.

  • Maintain an agile backlog list to track issues between meetings
  • Hold a transparent meeting every two weeks.
  • Speak to many existing and potential PA’s regarding their views on ways to improve the process. Here is where my strong research skills will really come in handy.
  • I will attempt to integrate use of multimedia such as video and audio where possible to ease the process for all parties.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle?

Random fact: my name is Ada-ku :blush:

I am a people person and always have lots of ideas so being a part of Catalyst Circle would enable me to execute some of these ideas for the ecosystem. Very importantly, I’m a really good listener and always take the time to really consider different thoughts and ideas in a way best for the community.

Additionally, I am very creative - I sing, I write and so much more. Through my creativity, I have a unique ability to deliver information in a digestible way which helps to break down barriers to entry and thus enables more groups to get involved!

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