AT&T Names Data Network Expert Eslambolchi Chief Technology Officer And President of AT&T Labs

NEW YORK, /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T appointed the scientist and engineer responsible for the company's Internet Protocol (IP) and packet networks as chief technology officer and president of AT&T Labs.

Hossein Eslambolchi, 43, was senior vice president of packet and optical networks, responsible for the development, engineering, operations and reliability of AT&T's packet networks, as well as the Global Network Operations Center that is the company's network nerve center.

"Hossein is a technology leader who has helped make AT&T's IP network the most reliable in the world, with a 99.99 percent report card,'' said C. Michael Armstrong, AT&T Chairman and CEO. "He has an unbeatable track record in putting new IP and broadband technologies to work for the benefit of AT&T customers."

Eslambolchi succeeds David C. Nagel, who will become president and chief executive of Palm Inc.'s Platform Solutions business, a new Palm subsidiary. Nagel, who has served on the Palm board of directors for several years, became the first president of AT&T Labs in 1996 and was appointed chief technology officer in 1997.

"Dave Nagel has helped the Labs become an innovation engine, filing about two patents a day and producing services and inventions that are important competitive differentiators for AT&T,'' said Armstrong. "We wish him success as he pursues a unique entrepreneurial opportunity.''

An expert in network reliability, Eslambolchi first joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1985, studying metropolitan network applications and ultra-reliable communication systems. He was the program manager for the Fast Automated Restoration System (FASTAR), which makes it possible to quickly restore phone service when high-capacity fiber optic cables are damaged. FASTAR was successfully deployed in the AT&T network in 1992. As a member of the FASTAR inventor team, Eslambolchi was honored as a finalist in the 1997 United States National Inventor of the Year competition.

Eslambolchi, who holds 87 patents, has been widely recognized as a technology leader. In October 1999, he received AT&T's highest technical honor when he was appointed an AT&T Fellow. He also received the 1997 Thomas Alva Edison award and the 1997 AT&T Labs Science and Technology Medal. In September 1998, he accepted an invitation to participate on The President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities Technical Task Force, to help people use information technology to overcome personal challenges.

Prior to his AT&T career, Eslambolchi served as an Adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of Monmouth College.

Eslambolchi graduated with highest honors from the University of California - San Diego with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in mathematics. His academic abilities in applied mathematics were recognized with an honorary membership to the Phi Beta Kappa society. He received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California - San Diego.

Eslambolchi lives in California, and will divide his time between AT&T Labs' operations in Menlo Park, California, and New Jersey.

About AT&T
Labs More than 6,000 people in AT&T Labs develop and exploit technologies to give AT&T and its customers a competitive edge. AT&T Labs is a leader in technologies and standards for audio, speech, video and image compression; data mining technologies and visualization tools; electronic commerce and digital rights management; search and directory services; advanced network design and architecture; network operations systems and future broadband technologies. AT&T Labs files on average two patents a day, and is aggressively working to commercialize AT&T's intellectual property through new ideas, applications and services.

About AT&T
AT&T is among the world's premier voice, video and data communications companies, serving consumers, businesses and government. In 2000, AT&T had annual revenues of nearly $66 billion. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company runs the world's largest, most sophisticated communications network and is the largest cable operator in the U.S. The company is a leading supplier of data and Internet services for businesses and offers outsourcing, consulting and networking-integration to large businesses. Concert, the AT&T/BT Global Venture, serves the communications needs of multinational companies and international carriers worldwide.

Hossein Eslambolchi
AT&T Chief Technology Officer and President of AT&T Labs
Hossein is currently Senior Vice President of AT&T's Packet and Optical Network Services. In this role, Hossein is responsible for engineering and operations of optical transport, Data and IP Networks including Private Line and Web Hosting centers. Hossein also leads AT&T's Worldwide Intelligent Global Network Operations Center.

Hossein was recently elected as the interim President of Excite@Home Broadband Networks Services to help stabilize performance, quality, reliability, and scalability of Excite@Home Internet Application services. He was also accountable for growing the broadband subscriber base and accelerating revenue growth. During his 6 months tenure, a 50% subscriber growth was achieved while improving reliability from 66% to 99.999%. In addition, customer satisfaction by 50% underscores his highly successful mission.

Prior to his current assignment at AT&T, Hossein was the Vice President of Network Operations Enterprise. Hossein was responsible for the maintenance, provisioning, performance quality and reliability of AT&T's Worldwide Intelligent Network. Through Hossein's leadership and innovation of Concept of One and Concept of Zero, AT&T network operating expense was reduced by $1 B while improving reliability by a factor of two.

Hossein began his career in 1985 at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he designed and engineered appropriate technologies for building broadband metropolitan network applications as well as defining ultra-reliable communication systems. By inventing an algorithm and the architecture to restore facility failures, Hossein uniquely revolutionized the network design and architecture of AT&T's fiber optic network. In 1990, Hossein joined AT&T Network Services where he was actively involved in improving operation support systems reliability, restoration systems, network optimization, and performance modeling of packet switched networks.

Through Hossein's outstanding work as program manager of the Fast Automated Restoration System (FASTAR) in 1992, AT&T implemented this system into its network, which enabled the company to protect over $ 3 billion in revenue. For this achievement, Hossein was honored as a finalist in the 1997 United States National Inventor of the Year competition. Also, through Hossein's leadership of the AT&T Outside Plant (OSP) re-engineering initiative, network operating expenses were reduced by $ 250 million while improving reliability by an order of magnitude over a 3-year period.

As a prolific inventor, Hossein holds 87 patents. In October 1999, Hossein received AT&T's highest technical honor by being appointed an AT&T Fellow. In 1997, Hossein received both the New Jersey Thomas Alva Edison award and the AT&T Labs Science and Technology Medal.

Hossein is on the board of advisors for Pacific Broadband Communications and the Catalyst Group. He also served on the Compaq board of technical advisors as well as Advisory Council member at John Hopkins University - Whiting School of Engineering. Hossein has published in 18 technical publications and is on the IEEE editorial board of the Journal of Network and Systems Management. In September 1988, Hossein participated on The President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities, supporting their efforts to make the information superhighway accessible to people with disabilities.

Hossein also served as an Adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of Monmouth University. Hossein graduated with highest honors from the University of California, San Diego with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Mathematics. His academic abilities in applied mathematics were recognized with an honorary membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society. He received both his master's and doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.