Cole Um

Founder

For nearly a decade at Booz Allen Hamilton, Cole led the delivery of mission-critical technology in some of the most demanding, heavily regulated environments in government, where performance had to meet strict policy, compliance, and oversight requirements. He led modernization efforts supporting platforms used at national scale and worked directly with stakeholders at every level, from daily users to senior executives, program leaders, and CIOs, translating complex requirements into systems that could be delivered and sustained at scale.

He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, with a minor in Business Administration.

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Why Aethis Exists

The answer is not always more technology.

Years of leading large-scale modernization taught Cole that new technology creates little advantage on its own. What matters is choosing the right problem to address, making the right change, and ensuring it works in practice.

AI makes that judgment more important, not less. The possibilities are broad, but so is the temptation to chase new tools, automate the wrong things, or move before the underlying need is clear.

Aethis was built to give leaders a more grounded way forward. We do not begin with a standard playbook or a predetermined answer. We start with the business, determine what actually needs to change, and move ahead only where the expected benefit justifies the effort.

Sometimes that means using AI. Sometimes it means automation, a simpler process, or getting more from what is already in place. The point is not to introduce technology for its own sake. It is to make the business work better.

Schedule a conversation with Cole