Board of Directors

Alex Best has been associated with the cable industry for nearly 50 years. In addition to serving on the Deep Fiber Solutions Board, Alex is also a member of the Board of the Arris Group, Inc. Prior to joining the Arris Board, Alex served as Executive Vice President of Engineering for Cox Communications, Inc. During his 15 years with Cox, Alex was responsible for network and technology strategy, network monitoring, product evaluation and purchasing. Under his technical leadership the Company launched high speed Internet service in 1996 and digital video service in 1997. Alex was also instrumental in launching cable telephony in 1997, making Cox the first cable company to enter the residential telephone business. As a result, Cox was first to offer the “triple play bundle” of video, voice and data over a broadband network. Alex’s career in the cable industry began when he joined Scientific Atlanta as a design engineer in 1966. His first design was a solid state headend channel processor, the first such device in the industry that did not use vacuum tubes. A complete line of headend products followed, and in 1975, Alex was promoted to engineering manager. When he left to join Cox in 1986, he held the position of Principal Engineer. Alex received the Vanguard Award for Development in 1977 and was inducted into the Cable Television Pioneers in 1991. In 1992 he was selected by the Southern Cable Television Association to receive the Polly Dunn Award and in 2001, the President’s Award. In 1994 he was inducted into the SCTE’s Hall of Fame. CED Magazine recognized Alex as “Man of the Year” in 1998. In 2014 Alex was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame. Alex attended Augusta State University and later the Georgia Institute of Technology where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in 1964 and a Master’s in 1966, both in Electrical Engineering. In 1980 he attended the PMD Program at Harvard.

Gary Bowen is General Partner of Cross Peak Capital Management LLC; a Boston based investment firm which manages a multi-strategy investment fund that primarily invests in technology based venture capital opportunities as well as publicly traded securities. With 20+ years of experience in the technology and technology investment business, Gary has held management roles at several technology companies including Juniper Networks and Bay Networks. Gary joined Coastal Management Group in 2008 as a portfolio manager for the Narragansett Multi-Strategy Fund. The Narragansett Multi-Strategy Fund was awarded the Thompson Reuters Lipper Award for best hedge fund in North America over three years in the multi-strategy category. Gary is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Babson College with a BS in Finance and Economics.

Jim Corman has been a serial entrepreneur for 40 years. During that time, four of his companies grew to the point that they were sold to larger, publicly traded companies. Those companies were all involved in various aspects of the telecommunications industry with the largest of the companies growing to almost 2000 employees and 2.1 million customers before it was sold.

Currently, Mr. Corman serves as a co-founder and managing partner of the Angel Investor Management Group (AIM Group) headquartered in Auburn, AL. AIM Group is the largest angel investor network in the Southeast with 280 members in seven chapters. Those chapters are located in Birmingham, Huntsville, Auburn, Montgomery, Mobile, Dothan and Nashville. In addition to responsibilities within AIM Group, Mr. Corman has taught Entrepreneurship in the Auburn University College of Business for the last nine years.

For the first 53 years of his life, Atmore, Alabama was home. For the last 9 years, he and Jane (his wife of 40 years) have lived in Auburn, Alabama. They have three adult children and three grandchildren.

Mr. Corman has served as a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church for 27 years and along with his wife Jane, created the Corman Foundation. From 1993 until 2013, the Corman Foundation issued grants to various Christian ministries and charities.

Mr. Corman earned an undergraduate degree in Finance from Auburn University and an MBA from the University of Texas.

Curt is a Deep Fiber Solutions co-founder, Board member and former CEO. His 35 years of telecom experience spans wireline, wireless, local, long distance and international. Prior to Deep Fiber Solutions Curt was President and COO of wireless Internet provider, Open Range Communications, and before that he was Interim CEO of Cedar Point Communications where he served on the board for a number of years. He was CEO and President of Arbinet-thexchange from 2000 through 2007, a company he took public in 2004. Earlier, at AT&T Broadband he launched telephone service over cable and before that he was Teleport Communications Group’s SVP of Affiliate Services from 1993 to 1999, where he was responsible for constructing new networks and relationships with the cable industry. He held other TCG senior management positions, including SVP of National Operations, before AT&T acquired TCG. Curt began his telecom career at Cox Cable and was VP/GM of the Company’s Oklahoma City cable property from 1983 to 1992. He was employed by General Electric Co. for 9 years in a variety of marketing communications assignments prior to joining Cox as Director of Corporate Advertising. Curt has served on a number of public and private company boards. He holds a B.J. degree from the University of Missouri and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development.

Chuck has spent nearly 25 years as a cable/telecommunications industry executive building and running companies and business units at Cox, Charter and China Network Systems. Chuck joined Deep Fiber Solutions in August 2017 as its Chief Executive Officer and member of its Board of Directors. Prior to that, Chuck served almost six years as the Chief Executive Officer of China Network Systems (CNS), Taiwan’s largest multi-system cable operator. Before joining CNS, Chuck spent 12 years in various executive positions within the cable industry in the United States as the Senior Vice President for Southeast Operations with Charter Communications, the head of Cox Business Services LLC, and the VP of Residential Broadband Services at Cox Communications. Prior to his experience in cable television, Chuck worked 17 years for AT&T (formerly SBC Communications) in corporate strategic planning and in telephone operations. Chuck holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree in business from Washington University. He currently serves on the board of directors for Rahab’s Rope, Summit Counseling Center, Orange Thread Media, and Enertech Capital Partners. Previously he served, internationally, on boards of directors for China Network Systems, Inc., Global Digital Media Inc., Cable Broadcast Institute of Taiwan, and the American Chamber of Taiwan; and domestically, on boards of directors for both the state of Missouri and national board for the United Cerebral Palsy Association.