Hossein Eslambolchi
President, AT&T Labs
Chief Technology Officer, AT&T
Chief Information Officer, AT&T Business

Hossein Eslambolchi is AT&T’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Information Officer (CIO) and President of AT&T Labs, where he is a member of AT&T’s Office of the Chairman, the company’s governing executive panel led by AT&T Chairman and CEO David W. Dorman. He is responsible for the corporation’s strategic technology direction, research and development, information technology systems and processes, and advises the chairman and senior leaders on technology issues.

As CTO, Hossein oversees the formulation and implementation of a strategic vision to advance technology in conjunction with AT&T’s business objectives. As CIO he provides the leadership to reengineer AT&T’s business processes and the underlying information technology (IT) infrastructures -- improving productivity and the value of information within the organization. He leads the direction and alignment of IT to support AT&T’s business planning, applications development, architectural design, sourcing, strategic partnerships, technology transfer, and customer satisfaction. As President of AT&T Labs, he leads some of the world's best scientists and engineers in the development and creation of new services, tools and capabilities for next-generation IP networks to give AT&T and its customers a competitive edge.

Hossein created and is implementing two overarching management initiatives to overhaul nearly all AT&T processes and systems: Concept of One (do it once, do it right, use it everywhere) and Concept of Zero (zero defects, zero cycle time and automate where possible). He is leading efforts to streamline and mechanize systems and processes (ordering, provisioning, maintenance, billing, etc.) as part of a cultural shift that involves nearly every employee to ensure flawless execution of services and customer care -- transforming AT&T’s business and even the entire industry.

Previously he was Senior Vice President of AT&T’s Data and Internet Network Services responsible for the development, engineering, operations and reliability of AT&T's packet networks, as well as the Global Network Operations Center -- the company's network nerve center.

Hossein served as interim President of the former Excite@Home Broadband Networks, and in his brief tenure improved network reliability by 51% and stabilized the performance, quality and scalability of services, while the number of subscribers increased by 20%. Hossein joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1986 and was responsible for the design and development of internal AT&T packet networks. As an expert in network reliability and IP technology, he was also program manager for the Fast Automated Restoration System (FASTAR), which AT&T successfully deployed in 1992 making it possible to quickly restore service when high-capacity fiber optic cables are damaged.

As a member of the FASTAR inventor team, he was honored as a finalist in the 1997 United States National Inventor of the Year competition. Hossein holds more than 200 patents and is widely recognized in the industry as a technology visionary. In October 1999, he was appointed an AT&T Fellow (AT&T’s highest technical honor). Hossein was named "Inventor of the Year" by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame, in 2001. The New Jersey Research and Development Council honored him with the Thomas Alva Edison award in 1997. In the same year, he received AT&T Labs’ Science and Technology Medal.

He is on the Board of Directors for Conexant and Wytec, as well as the advisory board of the National Alliance of Business (NAB). Hossein’s work has been published in 18 technical publications, and he is on the IEEE editorial board of the Journal of Network and Systems Management. Hossein also serves as AT&T’s Accessibility Champion.

Hossein graduated with highest honors from the University of California - San Diego with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and in 2002 was elected as UCSD’s alumnus of the year. He received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California - San Diego.

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