About Us

Bringing Diverse Insights and Real-world Expertise
to Solve Your Complex Business and Technology Challenges

BNS is a collection of professionals who bring diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and hands-on experience to solve your most complex business and technology challenges. We leverage our proven expertise in markets including telecom, media, entertainment, power, utilities, critical infrastructure, and government to provide unbiased business strategy consulting and technology assessments. Our customers count on us to keep our finger on the pulse of change so we can validate strategic approaches and provide tailored solutions that leverage our in-house talent and curated partner ecosystem.

Unlike traditional consulting or outsourced engineering firms, BNS brings a strong sense of purpose to our customers’ pivotal projects. We build trust by collaborating closely with our customers through engaged listening and transparency. Once we gain an understanding of short-term and long-term goals, we are completely focused on accelerating your path to success.

Mission

To connect and enable our clients with the best-in-class business and technology solutions. We believe in a transparent and open approach. Working collaboratively with our clients, we are committed to being one team, delivering the most efficient, effective, and affordable solutions for our clients that drive their business forward.

Vision

We aspire to be the most trusted business and technical industry partner by bringing value to our clients through out-of-the-box thinking coupled with deep knowledge and expertise.  Our team’s experience, integrity, and innovation sets BNS apart and we drive to enable your growth and offer technical solutions that meet or exceed our customers’ business needs.

Our Leadership

Bold New Solutions, Inc. (“BNS”), was formed as a C-Corp in the state of Delaware in 2015 by Lu Bolden (CEO), William “Bill” Newby (COO), and Chad Fister (CFO). Lu and Bill met while flying together in the United States Air Force in 1992. After Lu left the military, he co-founded CSI Digital, Inc. in 2005, and Chad joined later as CFO in 2009. CSI Digital, Inc. was sold in 2014 and BNS was founded to be a consulting practice comprised of industry veterans who focus on helping Telco/Cable and M&E companies cost-effectively and efficiently solve business and technology challenges. As BNS grew, Chuck Hasek joined BNS as CTO in 2022.

Lu Bolden

CEO

Lu Bolden is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the BNS group of companies. He is Bold New Solutions’ CEO and Chairman of Cadick Corporation and Boat N Sun.  Lu also holds the position of Chief Strategy Officer at ThinkAnalytics.

Before founding BNS, Lu was Verimatrix’s Chief Revenue Officer and was responsible for the company’s worldwide sales and operations. Before assuming the Verimatrix CRO role, he was the VP of Global Business Development and US/Canada Sales. Lu played a crucial role in Verimatrix’s acquisition of Akamai’s TV Everywhere, accelerating Verimatrix’s path to providing global SaaS services.

Prior to joining Verimatrix, Lu was the Co-founder of CSI Digital, an IPTV and OTT system integration company that integrated, designed, deployed, and maintained over 100 IPTV/OTT systems in the Americas. Lu led the company to a successful sale in 2014.

Lu was also the EVP of Technical Sales for Sherpaq Mobile Products, where he was responsible for the design and sale of mobile voice, video, and data systems to Army Intelligence, the SACEUR communications team, the Secretary of Defense communications team, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Lu attended the Air Force Academy and flew on the E-3 AWACS out of Tinker AFB and Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base. After his military service ended in 2002, Lu played professional basketball in Germany and established a basketball camp, the BIBC, in Heerlen, The Netherlands.  Lu is married to Jennifer, his high school sweetheart, has three sons, and is passionate about helping youth learn life lessons and achieve success through sports. Lu loves to BBQ, entertain, spend time with family and friends on the water, and is an avid golfer.

William Newby

COO

Bill is the co-founder and COO of BNS. Bill has over 30 years of experience working with the Department of Defense, U.S. Government Agencies, Allied Partners, and Commercial Energy Companies. Bill has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Maryland, University College and is certified GIAC Information Security Professional.

Bill is also a retired United States Air Force officer with 25+ years on active duty. Bill served for 12 years as a crewmember and instructor on both the U.S. and NATO E-3 AWACS aircraft with 3,000+ flying hours, having been stationed at both Tinker AFB, Oklahoma and Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base, Germany. Bill was also a member of the All-Air Force Rugby Team competing globally and was a member of two Armed Forces Championship Teams.

Following that Bill served as a Communications Officer, later reclassified as Cyber Operations Officer, for 13 years. During that time Bill served in roles such as IT Project Manager, Senior Network Defense Officer and CENTCOM/USAF Liaison for the NSA, Operations Flight Commander, Squadron Director of Operations, and member of the Air Force Special Operations Command’s headquarters staff.

Bill has operational deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. There he served as the Officer in Charge of the Plans & Programs office managing all Tactical and Strategic IT Projects in the country of Iraq, and as Mission Support Flight Commander in charge of Communications, Logistics, Administrative, and Civil Engineering disciplines to support a Coalition Rescue Group, as well as the IT Project Manager and liaison to both Marine Corps and United Kingdom counterparts.

Since retiring, Bill has worked for Booz Allen Hamilton in such capacities as a Cybersecurity Policy & Compliance Analyst, Systems Engineer, Delivery Manager, and Program Management Support for the United States Navy and Fortune 500 Energy and Utility Providers.

Chad Fister

CFO

Chad has over 20 years of financial, operational, and executive experience, and is a proven leader in both public and private company environments. Prior to joining BNS, Chad served as CFO of a technology infrastructure lifecycle services company, CFO of a global creative production collective, CFO of an IPTV services company, Director of SEC Reporting for a telecom company, Director of Finance for a technology start-up, Vice President of Corporate Accounting for a financial services firm, Assistant Controller for a health services company, and began his career in public accounting as an auditor with Deloitte.

Chad holds an inactive-status CPA license in the state of Oregon. He attended BYU and earned a Master of Accountancy Degree and Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. Chad is the father of five children and enjoys an active lifestyle playing golf, basketball, and other forms of exercise. In his spare time, Chad writes fiction adventure novels and presents to schools nationwide as a child literacy advocate. His dream is to someday make movies of his books.

Charles Hasek

CTO

Chuck is the Chief Technology Officer of BNS. Chuck brings over 20 years of experience in the media, content, cable and telecommunications space. He brings passion for building and scaling new products and services with a customer driven focus.

Prior to BNS, Chuck was most recently the Vice President, Video Technology at T-Mobile, US and based in the Denver, CO area. He was responsible for leading the group for the design and development of video and media services for the T-Mobile TVision OTT and IP video services. The team focused on advancing and developing the latest IP and media technologies such as Content Delivery Networks (CDN), Content Acquisition, Video Encoding/Compression, Content/Network Security, Advanced Advertising/Monetization, Blackouts/Alternate Content and many other video services and platforms.

Before the acquisition by T-Mobile, Chuck spent 5 years as founding member and Senior Vice President of the Video and Infrastructure Technology group for Layer3 TV, he is responsible for leading the design, development and operations group for of the video systems, network, systems and infrastructure for the next generation IP video platform. The team was focused on advancing and developing the cutting-edge IP video, network and data center technologies, virtualized compute platforms and other cutting-edge technologies to deliver an unparalleled video experience.

Prior to Layer3 TV, Chuck spent 10 years as a Principal Architect, Video Systems in the Time Warner Cable Architecture, Development and Engineering Group located in Broomfield, CO. As part of the AD&E group, he was responsible for the architecture and development in the areas of Video Encoding and Compression, Content Encryption and Protection, Content Delivery Networks (CDN), VOD and other video system platforms. During his tenure at TWC, Chuck conceived, architected, developed and commercially deployed the largest live streaming television ABR and CDN platform of its time. Chuck worked for the Mystro TV Group and was instrumental with developing and engineering the Mystro Network DVR (NDVR) product (which later evolved into Emmy winning TWC Start Over and Look Back products).

Chuck looks forward to continuing his pioneering work of defining and developing the next generation content and media experiences. He has over sixty U.S. patents in the media and telecommunications technology space with many more patents in various stages of filing. In addition to Chuck’s patent work, he has contributed to seven Emmy award winning technologies and products. Chuck earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, cum laude, degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Advisory Board

Rafael Collado

Rafael “Raf” Collado is the Co-Founder of GetMyBoat, the world’s largest boat rental and charter marketplace. In addition, he is the co-founder of Phacil, an award winning $130 million 700-employee IT services Federal Government Contractor with its headquarters in Arlington Virginia. Mr. Collado has previously founded, built managed and sold three companies, including Inabox, BERN Associates, and Sigma Research. Mr. Collado also founded and was CEO of Protocom Devices, which he led through IPO.

Mr. Collado was an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of the Cooper Institution of New York and he attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, where he majored in Electrical Engineering.

David C. Luman

Accomplished multidiscipline executive with a successful track record in senior leadership positions across diverse industries. Proven expertise in driving client-side digital transformation, strategic planning, analytics and business growth. Recognized for strong leadership, exceptional communication skills, and a passion for leveraging technology to create value.
Committed to delivering strategic guidance and governance as a Board Director.

Experienced Leader:
CEO, CSI Digital | CEO, Content Services Inc. | CEO, Asset Analytics

• • Provide strategic vision and leadership to companies specializing in digital solutions, content management, security and technical analytics.
  • Drive overall company growth, revenue generation, and profitability.
  • Guide technology and digital transformation initiatives for clients to optimize operations and enhance customer experience.
  • Foster innovation and build strategic partnerships with clients, vendors, and industry leaders.

Executive Positions -Nonprofits: City Council | Rotary | Chamber of Commerce | YMCA

• • Served in executive roles, providing leadership and strategic guidance to community and community organizations.
  • Leveraged expertise to support organizational objectives and drive positive impact.

Marc Cohen