Bold-faced retirement

La Jolla public affairs honcho Bill Bold, long the chief strategist of Qualcomm’s efforts to increase the number of so-called H-1B visas to allow more foreign nationals into the country to perform engineering work for cheaper wages than domestic workers, is moving to hang up his influence-peddling shoes in the age of Trump.

“As some of you know, I’ve announced that I’m retiring from Qualcomm on June 1 after twenty years of founding and leading the company’s Government and Public Affairs function,” says a tweet from Bill Bold. “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate my successor and friend Nate Tibbits, who I’m sure will bring some badly-needed professionalism to the post.”

Once legislative director for one-term Democratic congresswoman Lynn Schenk in the 1990s, he is married to Rochelle Bold, another veteran of Schenk’s office and the big-money wireless industry created here by billionaire Democratic donor and Hillary Clinton backer Irwin Jacobs. Bold’s replacement Tibbits has been Qualcomm senior vice president for government affairs since April 2014. Prior gigs included a year at PR and lobbying giant Burson Marsteller and nine months in the Obama White House.