Join us as host Carrie Charles sit down with Christos Karmis, the visionary US CEO of Boldyn Networks, for an exclusive peek into the world of cutting-edge network connectivity solutions. From combining six global companies to leading the charge in various market segments, Karmis unpacks Boldyn's journey and unveils the company's strategies for staying ahead of the curve. Discover why 5G private networks are the next big thing and how Boldyn is at the forefront of this transformative trend. But that's not all! Get ready for an inside look at the heart of Boldyn's success: its unparalleled culture and leadership principles. From fostering empowerment to championing employee recognition, Karmis shares how Boldyn is paving the way for a new era of workplace excellence.
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Let's Get Digital is your gateway to the innovators and ideas transforming the digital infrastructure industry. From wireless telecom to fiber networks and data centers, this podcast explores all things digital infrastructure—diving into the trends, technologies, and people shaping the future of connectivity.
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Previously known as 5G Talent Talk with Carrie Charles, the ‘Let’s Get Digital’ podcast is sponsored by Broadstaff in partnership with RCR Wireless News. Broadstaff is a full-service national staffing firm specializing in all areas of digital infrastructure. Since 1982, RCR Wireless News has been the leading media source for unparalleled news coverage, in-depth insights, and comprehensive analysis of the wireless and mobile technology industry.
Thank you for joining me today on 5G Talent Talk. I'm Carrie Charles, your host, and I am so happy that you are here. We have an exciting episode for you in the studio, actually not in the studio. I wish he was in the studio, but he's so busy. I don't think I could ever get you in the studio. I have with me Christos Karmis.
He is the US CEO of Boldyn Networks. Christos, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. All right, well, thank you, Carrie. Thank you for having me. Good to speak with you. Yes, yes. So Christos, tell me, how did you get to where you are today? I know that's a long story and just maybe some highlights of your journey to the seat that you're in now. Sure, sure, Carrie. So it's really probably like a lot of people where I sort of stumbled into the industry and into the role that I'm in.
I think it really started, you know, I've always had a passion for engineering and technology and, you I went to school and I studied engineering and really enjoyed that. And then my first job out of college was with a company called Harris Communications. And so, you know, as the name suggests, they're a big communications company, particularly in the defense sector. And they're doing a lot of work in space, which is really kind of why I chose to end up there.
And it was amazing company. The technology was amazing. If you just think about how communications actually works, right? Sort of the details of it, I mean, pretty amazing. And so I really, I enjoyed that position. But after a few years, I realized there's a lot more that I didn't know that I came to sort of realize that I didn't really comprehend at that time coming out of engineering school. And at that time in engineering school, they don't really teach you about finance, accounting, marketing, management. I mean, they probably...
They probably do now, but at that time, you know, they really did. And so I decided to go back and get my MBA. And so I did that and then did an intern for the small company called Deloitte, you know, that you may know of. And it was really, it was a great company. You know, I love the work. I love going into looking at different organizations, the people, you know, super smart, very driven. So I did an intern there between my two years and they offered me a job when I finished my second year. And I jumped on that and really enjoyed working there.
And as the guy that had the communications background, Deloitte was doing a lot of work at that time for the wireless carriers, as you can imagine, that was maybe 2001 -ish. And so we had big customers with companies like Nextel and Cingular and some other brands that kind of merged throughout the years. And so we did a lot of work around how to help those carriers build out their network infrastructure, whether it was how to do it more effectively from a financial perspective.
how to help with lease administration, process, systems, all those types of projects. I really sort of loved the industry and I loved the people I was working with and the clients that we were working with. And it was an exciting time because everybody was building out their networks so aggressively. And then this little thing happened with Enron and all of a sudden, if you worked at Deloitte or any of these big audit companies, you couldn't continue to provide consulting services. And so I really had to look around and decide what to do because,
a lot of the clients we were consulting with basically couldn't continue to have Deloitte do consulting services because they were the auditor. And at that time I decided it was time for me to sort of look to do something different. And I kind of joined this startup tower company that essentially was started with a few people formerly from Deloitte who weren't done in the industry. I would say we really enjoyed what we were doing and wanted to continue to do that.
That was really sort of the genesis of mobility. And in those days, and that was probably around 2005, most of the business was focused around sort of the tower infrastructure and how do we continue to build out towers under a model that's fast, but makes sense financially. And then the business really kind of started off as essentially as a tower company. And really, I joined the company at that time. I was really focused on growing our business with Nextel. If you can remember them before the Sprint merger.
And really just never look back and kind of went from Nextel to, you know, different carriers and kind of grew up in the organization and ended up running the business here in the U S and then through a series of different mergers and recapitalizations. We basically are now under the Boldyn Networks brand globally. So I think, you know, I think we're one of the largest neutral host infrastructure companies, and I would argue, you know, one of the most innovative ones as well. And we've got a great team of people at the company. It's, I think everyone's excited for.
what we're accomplishing in the industry. I think excited to be under the Boldyn brand going forward. So it's a great time and just super fortunate to have built the relationships I have and to have a great team of people, you know, at the company that we work with every day. Let's go a little deeper into the Boldyn story. And maybe you can talk about the companies that were integrated, go a little bit, you know, a little bit more into the services that you provide, who you serve, et cetera.
Just tell us more, tell us more. There's a lot to tell. So this company that most people in the US haven't heard of before called BAI Communications, they basically acquired Mobilitie several years back. And the only other investment they had in the US was this other company based in New York called Transit Wireless. And so in the US, we continued to operate Mobility as Mobilitie, Transit Wireless continued to operate as Transit Wireless. And
BAI Communications, it really is really more of a global firm, right? They've had a huge presence in Australia. You know, they run transit networks in Hong Kong. They have a business in UK, Ireland, Europe, that time in Canada. And so the biggest portion of BAI Communications was really all international except for the mobility acquisition and transit wireless. And so we continued to operate those businesses. We kind of knew we needed to sort of figure out what to do longer term.
And then along the way, we decided it was a great opportunity to acquire another business in the US called Signal Point Systems. And we knew the team at Signal Point fairly well. We were big believers in kind of their mission to provide communication solution to military bases, essentially, right? They're one of the largest providers of connectivity to military bases. So that was a segment that I think we were excited to enter into the market and it's difficult to enter into that without.
any history and so signal point sort of gave us a team gave us a presence to go do that. And then just because you know we kind of everyone was bored and didn't have much to do. Then we decided you know there's this other company in the US called ZenFi networks you know if you remember ZenFi So Ray LaChance and Victoria Lamberth, right, great great team at ZenFi we were really bullish in terms of the potential for smart cities you know we loved what the
legacy businesses had in New York already without ZenFi, it was super complimentary to say, how do we have an even bigger business in New York with a fiber business, with a larger outdoor small cell business, with the big smart city business around the link, the link kiosk that ZenFi had. And so, you know, we ended up acquiring ZenFi and then we looked around and there was really sort of two big challenges that we had as a, I think the global business and the U .S. business. You know, one was we had all these different brands. It was,
Super confusing to everybody we spoke to, you know, 'Who's Mobilitie or ZenFi or Signal Point or Transit? So who are we working with as customers, you know, as our US customers. And then, you know, we have a lot of customers that are also global in nature. And, you know, we're talking to them with our colleagues in Europe and then trying to explain, you know, who BAI is as an even more complicated sort of explanation. So we said, you know, we really needed to do two things. One, we need to have one global brand for the whole company that everybody can rally behind.
And then separately, we said in the US specifically, we've got four different, not just sort of brands, but really kind of four different management teams, essentially. And so we also have to integrate all the, all four US businesses under one management team. So in the last year, right, we've worked hard. We decided instead of keeping one of the legacy names that we would roll out a brand new name, but, and, uh, you know, that sounds easy to do, but, you know, trust me, it's, it's complex process to do that and, and make sure it works. You
not just in one country, but in all the countries that we want to operate in. So we rolled out the Boldyn Networks brand, which is really a combination of sort of bold and dynamic as sort of the genesis of Boldyn. But it took a lot more research and time than just sort of coming up with that for the name. And then on June 28th, we rolled out sort of the new management structure for the combined US business. And what I think worked out really well for us is each business was really sort of focused in a different part of the industry. So there wasn't a lot of overlap in
terms of like,
the asset base or like what the teams were doing individually. So it was really a case where the synergies of bringing all these companies together was how do we provide better services? How do we sort of leverage what everybody else is doing, not just in the US, but also globally to sort of do a better job for our customers. So it was a lot of work to get through the integration. Obviously there's still some things lingering around the back office, ERP and those types of things, but we're I think in a great spot from.
marketplace perspective, one brand, one team, everyone's fully aligned. So I don't want to undermine sort of, or underestimate, you know, how much work the team has sort of invested to bring us to the point that we are today. But I think, you know, we're very fortunate and very excited for the future. And yes, yes. And you know, your, your question, you know, like what markets are we into and how do we think of the marketplace? I think we looked around and we do a lot of different things.
And we really kind of boiled them down to sort of four main sort of categories. And the first one really being probably around like connected transport or connected transit. And we've run, you know, these wireless networks at these complex transit networks around the globe. So we really are sort of the leader in terms of how to provide connectivity to these sort of very complex transit systems, you know, metro rail type networks that are.
difficult to work in, difficult to engineer solutions for, difficult to operate and maintain. So that's a big part of what we do. That could be the tunnel infrastructure, it could be stations, it could be the track site systems, whether it's looking at how we're installing the fiber plant and how we're leveraging that for our small cell and our connectivity infrastructure, all the way down to the in -train solution and how are we helping to provide the connectivity actually inside the train to people as well. So there's a very...
a key part of what we do. We've got major networks where we run this in the US, in the Bay Area, in San Francisco, in New York, piggybacking off of what Transit has started. We've got a lot of work happening in New York and Seattle and sort of markets. So for us, one major segment is sort of connected transit. And then maybe the second segment for us is what we call our connected venue and enterprise business. And this is really our indoor DAS type solutions. And this started really...
early on with sports and entertainment type venues when in building really became solutions became necessary, especially with the advent of the iPhone. And today we operate networks across all industry verticals. So not just sports and entertainment, but hospitality, real estate, higher education, healthcare, we're pretty much in every vertical. And this has become, I think, more exciting every year because it's kind of gone from just like a network for the carriers to really a network for the enterprise and for...
a network that everyone sort of expects to have connectivity with. So we could be providing not just the 5G neutral host to ask, but also the wifi network. We have a huge wifi business in addition to our cellular business. And then we're starting to do more and more in the private network space. So regardless of what the technology is, that sort of connected venue is a key piece of what we do. And then maybe the third...
sort of segment for us is what we call our next gen infrastructure. So this is, think of that as like our outdoor infrastructure, right? And we built thousands of communication towers, right? Thousands of outdoor small cells. We run some pretty large fiber networks around the country that we're leveraging, not just for our wireless infrastructure, but also as a commercial fiber plant where we have wholesale customers, you know, we're tied into data center. So we've got a decent size sort of fiber business, I would say, in some strategic markets for ourselves.
And then maybe the fourth segment is what we call our connected city and connected community solutions. And those really kind of come in two categories. One, it's really smart city. And think of smart city as like what we're doing in New York with our link solution where we're providing the connectivity to people in that scenario. It's Wi -Fi, obviously it could be small cells and other technologies as well. But it's the largest.
contiguous, you know, Metro wifi network in the country in New York, right? So it provides a significant amount of connectivity for people. And, you know, it's not just for people to stream and, you know, grab their Uber, but if you think about it, right, there's a lot of underserved areas traditionally where we're providing the backbone of connectivity for people for that. And then I think if you fast forward in the future and you start to think about how did those networks start to get leveraged for municipal and sort of city initiatives around.
sustainability and climate change and those types of things. Like we're confident those types of Metro Smart City networks become more important over time. And then probably the second piece of our connected city infrastructure is around our military segment. And we think of that as like the smart base infrastructure and how are we providing connectivity to our military men and women and their families, whether it's in the base at home, what it might be. And so we've got a large business where we're providing that connectivity to, you know, what has been sort of
relatively shamefully a underserved part of the industry that certainly deserves more robust connectivity solutions. So that's, we're highly, highly focused on that. So those are kind of like our four big areas if you think about it, connected transit, connected venues, next gen infrastructure, and then sort of the connected cities. And there's a whole lot underneath all those, but that's really kind of what we're focused on. And we've got a high amount of growth across all segments right now.
One stop shop, sounds like you do it all there, Christos. Well, it's not me, it's the team, but yeah, we've got a great team. Yes, yes, we'll get to that in a few minutes. I want to hear all about it. One other thing I'd like to know just from your opinion, there's a lot going on in the industry lately, a lot not going on, you know, just things are a little different. What are some trends that you're seeing industry -wide? Let's say, let's look a little further out. I mean, obviously in 2024, but maybe over the next few
years.
And how is Boldyn aligning with those trends? You mentioned private network. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. But what are some other things you're seeing? Sure. I mean, there's a lot going on. I think one of the biggest trends we're seeing is, obviously, everyone's sensitive to cost. But really what we're seeing is more and more large enterprises realizing that it's important to them and there's an expectation that they have great connectivity. So it's kind of shifted from.
everybody always looking to the carriers to sort of solve problems to now more and more enterprises saying, hey, I have to have the responsibility and the accountability to make sure that I have good connectivity at my location. And so what we're doing, we're investing heavily in what we call our sort of enterprise team. So we're working with large enterprises every day for connectivity, really sort of balancing.
their needs and what they need, working with the carriers as well. So sometimes, we've got multiple different types of customers for a particular network, but we're really seeing a lot of that. And I think particularly in some verticals like commercial real estate is a great example where people want connectivity in the building where they work, especially with people returning to work post COVID. I mean, more and more real estate owners know that you have to have a great property to...
lease it out to somebody who's trying to get their workforce back in the office and everybody expects great connectivity. And if you look at the carriers from a financial perspective, they can't afford to be in every real estate building across the country that would like the system. And so I think that's a great example where the industry sort of pivoted and said, hey, the best way to build out that infrastructure is to have the enterprise or the real estate owners sort of take responsibility to sort of engage directly to install the system. So.
Like we have a large team that just works with our real estate owners, especially in the commercial real estate space to ensure we're designing the systems and installing those in the properties really as the real estate owner sort of being the customer at the end of the day. And that's the network that the carriers can then leverage for connectivity. So I think there's sort of the shift of customer focus, I think, to where, yes, the carriers are, you know, for us will always be key customers, but also we have a lot of enterprise customers as well. And so I think it's.
healthy for the business. And I think financially it's great for the carriers because it lightens the financial burden to them, you know, for the infrastructure getting installed. And then I think, you know, maybe staying on that theme around sort of costs, right? If you look at it, you know, there's, there's an opportunity still, we're confident in it to carry bits and bytes sort of cheaper and more effectively, right? We have a large wifi business and, and we see the results of what we're offloading on our wifi networks, right? And that's a great example of.
you know, a technology that I think, you know, a lot of people have utilized, but not nearly to the extent that, you know, it can provide, you know, great connectivity still. And, and I think sort of the next layer of that will be leveraging the CBRS spectrum and sort of the, the Mokin gateways and the ability to look at shared, shared spectrum or shared RAM installations as a architecture to provide, you know, cheaper solutions than having to install either individual carrier systems or even the more traditional.
neutral host, right? It's all a different form of a neutral host solution, but there's just an ability to do that in a way that we can deliver a solution much cheaper as well. And so I think the industry is pivoting now, right? You're starting to see some cases where the carriers are experimenting with this. We're bullish this is going to become bigger and bigger. And, you we've got a great technology team that we've expanded and really scaled to stay ahead of those trends. And then I think maybe the last area, like you mentioned, is around private networks and we're...
Obviously really big believers in terms of the marketplace for private networks, the types of customers that that opens up that wouldn't be traditional sort of public venue customers for ourselves. And we're investing heavily in that in the US and globally as well. So can you back up a bit just, just let's say I don't know what that means, right? What, what do you mean by private network and who would benefit from it and why is it so growing so fast right now?
Sure, it's a great question. And look, my sort of definition of the way I think of a private network is really that it's a standalone network that's providing broadband connectivity and it's sort of owned and controlled by the enterprise themselves. And that type of network is really kind of what we're talking about. And I think where that becomes very applicable and important is around sort of industrial and operational type of assets and use cases.
you know, places that a carrier is typically going to say, Hey, I don't have like a huge, uh, consumer base going in this property. So, you know, it's not going to hit their radar of saying, Hey, it's somewhere that they want to sort of invest in the network. Right. Or we, even if, if we put it in as Boldyn, the care is going to say, well, that's great, but there's not enough traffic there. It's really not not somewhere that's that important to them, but for whoever's running that business, right. Connectivity is critical for them. And so if you think about like transit,
networks you think about like warehouses, like manufacturing facilities, like energy plants, ports, port type facilities, right? Those are ones where they're not going to hit somebody's definition of a venue for a public sort of neutral host as network, but all those businesses, you know, connectivity is critical to them. And, and I think that's where it makes sense. And if you, if you start to look at like, what benefits do people have with these private networks? I think there's a, there's several key ones, right? I mean, first,
you know, reliable connectivity. And so if you look at, you know, somebody who needs connectivity for mission critical applications, it's a great network that can provide that type of reliable connectivity. You know, it's a carrier grade network essentially. So it's not, it's not something that, you know, somebody is going to want to sort of gamble critical connectivity going in and out of their venue or their operations of a manufacturing or warehouse facility around something that's, you know, has, you know, issues with it. Even if it's only,
1 % of the time, right? It's a problem for people who are running these critical businesses. So, you know, they're highly reliable networks. I think if you look at the coverage and the ability to use, you know, high power equipment and cover like large campus environments, whether it's indoor or outdoor, like they think of like a port facility and how big a port facility is, right? It's a technology that is, I hate to say easy, cause I...
I know nothing's really easy, right? But it's a technology that has like an easy application for those types of large coverage areas in a way that wifi is not going to sort of be realistic. And then if you think about security, right? And sort of the encryption and the authentication you get with devices off these networks, right? That's hugely important for all of those types of operational facilities. So I think, you know, from a security perspective, that's really important. And then if you think about the versatility of use and
how people want to leverage the network, right? They provide high data rates, low latency applications, you can carry voice on the networks, you can use it for all the different types of sensors and sort of IoT applications that those types of operational customers want. So it really has a lot of benefits and makes a lot of sense. And as connectivity has become more important, right, it's I think more critical to have these networks and people are finding more and more ways to take advantage of those. And...
And if you think about it, like the reason there's so many use cases there, I think, is because when you start to extrapolate for those types of operational facilities, like the ROI from those types of networks, right? It doesn't take a lot of efficiency improvements for somebody to relatively easy calculate an ROI and say, yep, it makes sense to sort of invest and have this network there. I mean, from a, just a business process perspective, it's probably important, you know, from just allowing people or devices to stay.
connected, it's important. But if you just look at, you know, the value on small improvements and sort of operational efficiencies, it becomes really easy to say, yes, we should make an investment because of the clear and sort of direct translation to the ROI for that. And then I think, you know, the other piece is everyone's obviously focused on safety and security, whether you're talking cybersecurity or just physical safety, you know, hugely important for people. And these, these networks also facilitate that. So I think that.
that ease of calculating the ROI without sort of a big leap of faith that somebody has to make on their part and safety and security have really sort of been two big drivers that have facilitated these networks. So let's talk a bit about culture and what it's like to work at Boldyn I I've heard, by the way, I've heard wonderful things about the new Boldyn and from people who work
there.
And so, but really I know I've heard as well that culture's always been a top priority for you, Christos. How are you integrating the various company cultures, creating a new culture? Like what is that like right now and what's important to you with the Boldyn culture? Sure. Yeah, I mean that's critical, right, for integrating these businesses and for us to be successful. And we really have spent a lot of time on this and...
We kind of looked around and actually for the business in the US and globally, because we were also rolling out this brand globally. So we said, look, there's a lot happening in the US. There's a lot happening globally. We want to have, you know, we want to be the leaders in terms of culture for the business and, you know, have that be a key part of being the preferred place to work in the industry. And we kind of looked around and we said, look, we came up with sort of four key principles, I think, as a business and, well,
describe these in a minute, but they're not just words, right? There's a whole series of behaviors under each one of these. And part of this is really identifying what culture do we want to have as a company in the US and globally? And how does that sort of set us apart? And how do we use that to retain, engage, attract the right people? And so we said, look, the first key principle is one team. And we said, look, we have to operate as one team. And that...
is one team globally, but also, you know, one team in the U S as we brought these businesses together. And I think helping people understand, you know, there's a lot happening in this business. Like I just sort of talked about all sorts of different customers and networks. And, but at the end of the day, we all kind of come together and we say, look, how are we doing as a business? And people have to understand, look, yeah, we'll be successful on individual projects all the time, but really how do we help everybody sort of be successful? How do we operate as one team? How do we engage and.
have an inclusive culture to get the best out of all the brain knowledge and the brain trust we have across the US and globally to kind of do a great job for our customers. And so this is really important. It gets down to like diversity of people. It gets down to sort of a transparent collaborative culture. All that is part of what we sort of describe as sort of one team for everybody. And then we said sort of the second sort of principle was around sort of customer first and really taking the time to understand like what,
What pain points do our customers have? How do we help them solve problems? How do we think really, really big? How do we deliver solutions that people aren't even asking for yet? So let's make sure everyone has a customer first mentality and we're doing a great job for our customers. Without that right, we're not going to be successful for long if our customers aren't happy with us. And we felt like this was particularly important with a new brand. We felt like in the US that was particularly important with
you know, four different legacy businesses that were all sort of touching the same carriers, some, you know, a lot of times the same people to say, Hey, how do we sort of simplify things from a customer perspective for us? And then, you know, the third one was around looking at how do we really drive sustainable growth in the organization? And so that's, you know, partially, okay, how are we thinking about the business sort of financially from a growth perspective, but also, you know, how are we, how does it back office functions work? Right? How are we thinking about IT, you know, finance, HR, like all,
all parts of the business operations, right? Our network operations center, like all that kind of comes into, you how do we scale the business for really sustainable growth and to scale and to do that in a way that, you know, we don't lose people on the way from burnout and other things. And then I think sort of the fourth key principle was around sort of adapting and learning and us saying, look, the industry is, you know, right? It changes fast. And I think, you know, that's one of the things to me that's super exciting, right? Every year something fundamentally sort of.
changes with the industry. And so, you know, let's make sure our people see that, hey, we're investing in them from a development perspective, whether it's opportunities within the firm, whether it's training, you know, we're really sort of promoting people to look for ways to contribute in the U .S. business. And also one of the nice things about being a global business is, right, we can pull from like private networks, for an example that we just spoke about.
was more advanced in Europe and other parts of the globe than they were in the US. So we've been able to take a lot of the learnings there, you know, let our team sort of learn from that and then apply it in the US and maybe vice versa with neutral host status networks that were more developed here in the US, less so in Europe. So there's a lot of opportunities where we've been able to get our people excited about being part of sort of this global business and looking for ways to, I think, grow their careers and contribute from that. And so those are to me, like kind of,
Operating as one team, focusing on customer, driving growth, and then having this sort of culture of adapting and learning for employees. And then all the host of sort of details underneath those that sort of have driven the culture that we have is, I think, a key part of that. So is there anything that you see or could pinpoint that's really working for your leaders, your teams to attract, engage, and retain talent in this?
economic environment today? Yeah, I think, I mean, it's always a challenge, right? Sort of finding great people. And what we really didn't want to do with it, especially with the integration is lose people on the way either just because of how the integration was happening. And so we spent a lot of time with our employees, you know, getting feedback to make sure like that everyone feels like they're heard along the way. I
Right, we're super fortunate right now. We have a great story to tell in the industry and I recognize that and we're really fortunate. If you look at the business, every segment that we're in is growing at double digit rate. So huge success in terms of just like the business in general and what we're doing in the marketplace. And then if I look at what motivates our people who are here today, it's really...
The people that they're working with, it's the career growth that they're able to have, especially as we brought these businesses together, right? So many people have had an opportunity to step up into a bigger role or been more excited about, what does the business look like now that we're a global business, not just sort of a US only business even. And then they see us saying, okay, let's roll out a much more formal training and development plan for everybody, right? Like what is the career path that everybody wants to have here? Like what's...
what do you want to do next, right? How do we sort of support you in terms of training that you want to go have? And so I think people see that direct willingness of the company to really sort of invest in people, right? They see, and not just an upgrade to like benefits and lead policies and all those types of things, which I know by far we're the industry leader on, but it's really things like, hey, when you're on vacation, like you should be on vacation. Like, let's not have you working while you're on vacation and really trying to be respectful of.
people's work life balance, trying to make sure that, yeah, everyone's working really hard, but everyone also needs some time to decompress and just sort of get some time away. And we don't want people jeopardizing their families along the way. And in the short term, maybe it accomplishes our goals, but in the long term, it's not healthy. So if you just look at the business, we rolled out the new brand globally, which is super exciting. I think the global nature of our business is really exciting. I think we're...
But I think we're about to make an announcement this week actually about something in Italy and Rome. So be on the lookout for that. Hopefully it won't be a spoiler alert when this goes out. So there's just a lot happening in the business that I think people get really sort of rally behind and excited for. And I think that helps us retain the people that we have. It helps them to keep them engaged, right? Our people become one of our best sources for referrals of new candidates that we hire. We've got a fantastic team.
on our sort of our people team that is all over, you know, employee engagement, you know, benefits recruiting. So I think from that perspective, right, that's been really well, we've been recognized a lot of the leading employer publications. So I think, I think, you know, work gets out pretty quickly, right? People see that I think, you know, our employees are super excited to work here. You know, we have a huge focus on recognition of employees, I think that then sort of spills over and puts us in a position to help recruit more successfully.
But it is, I think, based to your question to begin with, it is really hard to find great people. And you're trying to find people who are smart, motivated, driven, culturally that you know are going to sort of fit in with the direction we're taking the company. So to me, that's one of the most important areas for us to focus on. And I've been, I think, pleasantly surprised with the integration effort. It's been a ton of work, but it's exciting to see how excited other people are about.
how do we take all these parts of the business that we had before and now turn it into something that's three or four times larger by integrating all these companies together as well. So it's an exciting time. Christos, I've heard fantastic things about you as a leader. And I'd like to know what are your foundational leadership principles that guide you every day? Like who are you as a leader? Right. Well, thank you for the feedback.
Um, you know, we, we, like I said, we have a great team. I think if I look at like, what, how do I think of myself and in my role and what has led to us being successful? I think, you know, first and foremost, it's, it's leading by example and that's myself and the rest of the executive team. And that's, you know, the behaviors that we have every day. It's the values that we exude across the organization, right? It's the work ethic. It's the ability to be hands -on and sort of work with the team, not to sort of tell people what to, what, you know, they should be doing. Um,
you know, it's operating with transparency, you know, honesty, respect for people, uh, being, you know, empathetic, it's being a good listener to people. Like let, you know, how is it going, right? Taking the time to, to meet with people. I mean, I, I love being in the office and just talking to people. Right. So I think a lot of it is just, you know, the, the behaviors people see and that's, you know, super important. I think that can't be sort of underestimated. And I think the other, you know, maybe one other item is really empowerment of the team. Right. I mean, I,
To me, what really excites people is when they have a direct say in the work and they're making decisions and they're part of the team that's making things happen. And so for people to be motivated and engaged, right, they have to be sort of empowered to make decisions and people make good decisions, right? I mean, I'm not, zero concern that someone's just gonna make a terrible decision. In fact, if anything, people generally are more cautious and looking for a sort of a validation before making the decision that's already sort of the right decision.
Yeah, there'll always be some learnings along the way, but I think, you know, it's really important that the team feels like, you know, they're empowered. And, you know, frankly, I feel like my job is to say, you know, what else do you need? Right. Do you need more resources? Right. Peding people as a tools. Is there, you know, thought around sort of customer solutions or operational stuff that's becoming problematic that, you know, needs to get addressed? Like, let me help remove the barriers for the team to be successful. And.
And I love that, I love going to conferences and the team is the one speaking at conferences, not even myself. I love to see that and to see how people are developing their careers. And so I think that's a big piece. I think culture, like we talked about before, is hugely important. So I see a big part of my role in making sure we're promoting the culture that we want sort of as a business. And we're quick to call out areas that need to be addressed and quick to take action to address those and quick to...
ensure, you know, we're also recognizing and sort of rewarding the right people. Right. I mean, that to me, that's, that's probably one of the other areas where we have a lot of people doing a lot of great things. And, you know, I love making sure that people have an opportunity and outlet to get recognized for the, for the great work that they're doing. And, and, you know, that's exciting. And I think, you know, I've got the benefit of sort of, uh, having the lens for the organization, not just in the U S but globally, globally as well. So I see a big part of what I can do to help.
ensure that we're facilitating that collaboration as a company across the U S and globally by saying, Hey, you know what, like this problem that this team's trying to solve for, like these two or three people over here would be great sort of to bring into the team to help, you know, help address an issue. And for me, that's been super rewarding over the last year is really figuring out how to take, you know, so many great people that we have in the U S and globally and involve them in, you know, everything that we're doing. And it's.
It's a great culture that's highly collaborative. So I think, you know, it's very welcoming and inclusive. I think nobody's, you know, like stay out of my business. You know, I got this, I know what I'm doing. So I think it's that, that culture that we have, you know, as a company that we want to maintain as we continue to grow super important. But I mean, that's, that's really kind of what I view sort of my, my core job around, right. Sort of lead, lead by examples with all the trades, right. Empower the team, promote the culture and sort of recognize and kind of reward people and.
make sure everyone is getting what they need. And I just hear the common themes throughout this entire episode of just invest in people, people, people, people, and customers are people, right? So it's about the customer, it's about your people, it's about your team. I mean, I just think that Boldyn has the priorities in the right place. So I have no doubt that you're going to accomplish great things. In fact, let's talk about the great things you're going to accomplish. Let's look at the
future.
What is that? What's your vision? Where are you going? Where are you going in five years? Yeah. So five years, you know, five years, there's a lot, a lot happening, right? If I look at the business today that I talked about, right, we've got double digit growth in each segment. So if you fast forward five years, right, we'll double, I have no doubt we'll at a minimum sort of double the size of the business just based upon kind of what's happening today. I think that's really kind of exclusive of what I would say is the opportunity around that private network business that we talked about. So I'm a...
I'm a huge believer in that, right? We're investing heavily in the team and the technology, you know, the systems and the knock and the sock and all the stuff that's, you kind of comes with that. So I'm super excited for how big that sort of private network business will become. And then the market, the marketplace that that opens up that otherwise wouldn't have been sort of traditional customers for ourselves. And then I think the other big part of what I do is also help the company globally as well. So I think if I,
fast forward even beyond the US and say, where else can we grow this business globally? There's a lot of other countries that I think five years from now we're gonna be in that we're not in today as well. And so, I think we'll always be measured in terms of where we go and kind of how we enter into new markets, but there's sort of a lot of work, a lot of focus being done in terms of new market sort of entry as well. And I think we'll always sort of look at acquisition opportunities along the way. I mean, certainly we have a...
a team that's capable to do that. And, you know, I think where it makes sense for strategic and sort of growth reasons, you know, maybe we do that, but that the core of the business is still, you know, organic growth, right? New networks, stay focused on the customer. But it's an exciting time. I think, you know, we'll be double the size at a minimum in five years. You know, we're still being all the segments that we're in today that I described will be there plus private networks, I think will be a huge one that gets added on. I think our.
revenue will be more diversified on the enterprise side more so than sort of carrier focus, just based off, you know, what we talked about in terms of the customers now sort of opening up beyond just the carriers to be, you the enterprises even for mutual host as DAS installations. And then I'm super pumped for the global expansion of the business as well. And what's been nice is, you know, we have a lot of customers that operate global portfolios today. And so,
you know, for really kind of the first time now under the bold and umbrella that we were able to, you know, sit down with our customers and say, okay, here's how we're solving their connectivity in the U S and here's other properties that they may have, whether it's in London or Italy or, you know, Hong Kong, wherever it might be, right. We've got a team that is either probably already there or, you know, it's one of the markets that, you we're looking to expand into. And that gives us sort of a logical way to go do that. So.
I think we're excited for how big the business becomes globally, even beyond just the US. Well, I spent three weeks in Italy this year, so it's my favorite place on earth. So if you need any help out there, let me know. I'll keep you in mind. I'm ready. I keep saying I'm ready for the Greek island hospitality initiative, but we'll see. Christos, thank you for pulling back the curtain and letting us really...
really see the new Boldyn and it's exciting. Like I said, I've heard wonderful things about, you know, from the people who work there, the leaders and just everything that you've said is spot on for what I'm hearing on the staffing side. So how can we reach Boldyn? What's the website? Yeah. So boldyn .com, B -O -L -D -Y -N .com, right? Which is the combination of the bold and dynamic, like I mentioned, which is really the identity, I think, of the company going forward. And,
you know, descriptive of, you know, the types of people we're looking at, right? Ones that have sort of bold vision of what they can accomplish, ones that are dynamic and can operate as sort of in an environment that's always going to be changing and thrive and real team player. So yeah, just feel free to check out the website, boldyn .com. I think it'll give everyone some description on what we do, the markets we're in, you know, the roles that we're recruiting for, right? We're still, you know, despite kind of what's happening in the industry today, right? We're still significantly growing our teams.
globally, but also in the US significantly. We've got several major projects and major initiatives going on, particularly in New York and the Bay Area and San Francisco. So we're hiring a lot of people. So exciting times ahead. I can't wait. I can't wait. Well, Christos, thank you so much for coming on the show. This has just been my pleasure and I really appreciate you taking the time. So can't wait to see see what what you do. It's just it's very exciting. All right. Well, thank you, Carrie. Appreciate you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the.
the nice words about the culture and the business. We're excited for the team we have and to continue to contribute in the industry and to do a great job for our customers. So thank you very much, Carrie. Of course, take care.