The Ape Foundation, a steward for Yuga Labs’ Apecoin, announced the completion of their first phase for DAO council membership and is now beginning the 2nd phase. The elections will begin their 2nd phase with the options narrowed down to 42 candidates who have been selected based on their professional experience and understanding of finances, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology.

Apecoin Special Council Candidates

The Apecoin community will have until December 11th to learn more about the candidates. To learn more, here are 5 standout candidates available for Apecoin's DAO Council membership:

1. Raoul Pal

   Pal is a financial executive with over 30 years of experience working for Goldman Sachs and other hedge funds. He is currently the founder and CEO of a variety of different organizations including Global Macro Investor and Real Vision Group. 

   Pal wants to put an emphasis on community engagement by expanding community decision making with a more streamlined experience. This will help open up the potential of Apecoin to a broader user base which will help the council understand directions for the future.

2. Ken Forest

   Forest is a bitcoin mining operations manager with over $2 billion in assets under management, making him a prime candidate for the special council because of his unique technical experience with bitcoin mining. 

   As a miner, Ken Forest sees a side of cryptocurrencies that most crypto users are unfamiliar with. Web3 is a highly technical industry and Forest provides some of the most core knowledge of the field with his experience.

3. Freddie Olivas

   Olivias is an accountant with over a decade of experience managing accounts for Kaiser Permanente and Stiizy. His experience in healthcare and cannabis uniquely qualifies him for the challenging world of decentralized finance. 

   Olivas also has experience creating student investment funds during his time at UC Riverside where he competed against Harvard and USC for the best returns. Through this, he began exploring cryptocurrencies and became more familiar with experimental wallet technology.

4. Karl-Martin Ahrend

   Ahrend is an investment banker with experience working for many different groups including JP Morgan, Rocket Internet, and Blackstone. Many of his investments involve cryptocurrencies and web3 businesses, helping to grow startups for NFTs and DeFi.

   He is also an active member of the Punk DAO and founder of the LSE DAO, showing his familiarity with web3 and the different communities that populate it. As a council member, he plans to provide high-quality investment decisions for the community.

5. Micheal

   Micheal (who has no last name given) is an attorney and in-house counsel for a fortune 300 company. Micheal has valuable experience practicing American law and can provide insights into important aspects which other candidates might be unqualified to discuss. As a lawyer, he is also capable of producing and processing high quantities of complex information. 

   His ambitions as council member are to improve the efficiency of council meetings and voting. He plans to provide an improved framework for the foundation that will help keep the DAO operating smoothly and at a quick pace.