Name Hossein Eslambolchi | Role Author | |
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Education University of California, San Diego Books 2020 Vision: Business Transformation Through Technology Innovation | ||
Interview with Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi by CNBC
Hossein Eslambolchi is an Iranian-American innovator, engineer, inventor and author, best known for his prominent role in AT&T. He joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1985, and rose to become, in 2005, both Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer of the company. He became an Officer of the company in 2003, as well as a member of AT&T's governing Executive Committee and became AT&T Chief Technology Officer, AT&T Chief Information Officer, President and CEO of AT&T Labs and President and CEO of AT&T Global Network Operations. He left AT&T soon after its takeover by SBC in 2006.
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He is currently Chairman and CEO of 2020 Venture Partners LLC and CyberFlow Analytics.
AT&T Years
Dr. Eslambolchi joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1986 and was soon appointed global Chief Technology Officer, global Chief Information Officer, President and CEO of AT&T Labs and President and CEO of AT&T Global Network Services and was a 16B officer of the company beginning in 2001. He also served as a critical member of AT&T's governing Executive Committee. As CTO of AT&T he developed and executed a comprehensive four-stage strategy that included Enterprise Customer Service, Network Transformation, Service Transformation and Cultural Transformation, all in a span of just three years. Essentially, he initiated and instigated the overhaul and remodeling of the company dubbed the "new AT&T" by SBC. The New York Times called him "the technological strategist behind AT&T's ambitious turnaround plan to become a data transmission company selling an array of software products like network security systems," (01/22/2005). He predicted and advocated an architecture that would allow all services to run on IP and work together with connectivity to any device and advised top leaders accordingly on the formulation and implementation of his strategic technologic vision. He left AT&T soon after its merger with SBC in January 2006. Upon his departure, BusinessWeek called him "a critical player in maintaining AT&T's status as a technology leader" (12/2005) and noted that he is "a bold, but pragmatic, visionary."
Dr. Eslambolchi served as Chief Technology Officer and advised AT&T's top leaders on the formulation and implementation of a strategic technology vision from 2001 to 2005. Early on, he predicted that IP would "eat everything" and advocated an MPLS architecture based on Ethernet being the layer 2 backbone that would allow all services to run on IP and work together with connectivity to any device, in any place using Location Based Services. In addition, his significant service ideas regarding routers, security, hosting, cloud computing, virtualization and collaboration were implemented to increase company revenue as much as $5B. He worked tirelessly with Sales, Marketing and Product Management to implement his ideas in support of customer needs in both the enterprise and consumers' market. The New York Times credited Dr. Eslambolchi as "the technological strategist behind AT&T's ambitious turnaround plan to become a data transmission company selling an array of software products like network security systems," (01/2005).
In addition to serving as CTO of AT&T, Dr. Eslambolchi was also President of AT&T's Global Networking Technology Services, President and CEO of AT&T Labs and Chief Information Officer, giving him end-to-end responsibility for implementing the company's technology and operational vision of the 21st century. As President and CEO of AT&T Labs, he led a team of some of the world's best scientists and engineers in developing an architecture that transformed AT&T's legacy voice and data networks into a converged IP/MPLS network that now reaches all major business centers around the globe.
Dr. Eslambolchi designed a state-of-the-art architecture called Service Over IP in which all legacy services can migrate over new architecture at the lowest cost, highest capability and lowest cycle time. He developed several patents for product managers and sales groups across enterprise and consumer markets to be able enhance revenue stream using this MPLS architecture. As CTO, he led the company strategy and direction for new innovative services around call center application, e-collaboration and virtualization in both wireline and wireless infrastructures. Dr. Eslambolchi, in a very short period of time helped transform AT&T from being perceived as ports and pipes into a single global wireless company using state-of-the-art technologies and advised the AT&T Board of Directors on which access technologies to invest in for the future success of the company.
As President of Global Network Services, Dr. Eslambolchi was responsibility for the design, development, engineering, operations and reliability of AT&T's global network, as well as for its Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) – AT&T's networking nerve center. Dr. Eslambolchi was the main architect, engineer and implementer of this new GNOC, which came to fruition in 18 months. He oversaw and managed several tens of thousands of employees in both engineering and operations divisions of AT&T Corporation.
As Chief Information and Investment Officer, he provided the leadership that reengineered AT&T's underlying information technology (IT) infrastructures with his unique Concept of One and Concept of Zero business processes. While moving AT&T's legacy networks onto an IP/MPLS platform, he also directed the convergence of the operating support and customer service systems underlying the network, making AT&T the lowest-cost major carrier. This also improved cycle times and allowed customers unprecedented access to the network that permits them to monitor and control their services. More can be found on his superb innovation at www.2020vp.com. He also managed over $14B in Capex and $20B annually in operating expense for AT&T.
Life and work
Dr. Eslambolchi graduated with highest honors from the University of California, San Diego, earning BS, MS, Ph. D and Post Doc degrees in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. From 2010 through 2013, he served on the Board of Directors for Clearwire. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for SUSMA and technical advisor to the University of California School of Engineering where he started the CNS center for bringing together various engineering including nano- and bio-engineering fields.