Now an entrepreneur and advisor to high-tech firms in Silicon Valley, Hossein Eslambolchi led the transformation of AT&T’s network, systems and services.  After nearly 20 years with AT&T, he left the company soon after its merger with SBC in late 2005.  Upon his departure, BusinessWeek called him “a critical player in maintaining AT&T’s status as a technology leader” (Dec. 30, 2005) and noted that he is “a bold, but pragmatic, visionary.” 

Mr. Eslambolchi served as Chief Technology Officer for AT&T and advised its 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 architecture that would allow all services to run on IP and work together with connectivity to any device. 

 Light Reading said that “[Eslambolchi’s] evangelizing has underscored the notion of where the entire communications infrastructure is heading” when it named him to the # 1 spot on its list of Top 10 Movers and Shakers in Telecom (Nov. 2003). And The New York Times credited Mr. 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” (Jan. 22, 2005). 

In addition to serving as CTO, Mr. Eslambolchi was also President of AT&T’s Global Networking Technology Services (GNTS), President of AT&T Labs and Chief Information Officer, giving him end-to-end responsibility for implementing the company’s technology vision.  As head 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.  

As GNTS president, Mr. Eslambolchi was also in charge of deploying the innovations coming from AT&T Labs.  He had responsibility for the design, development, engineering, operations and reliability of AT&T's global network, as well as for its Global Network Operations Center – AT&T’s networking nerve center.  As CIO, 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. 

Mr. Eslambolchi holds over 700 worldwide patents – issued, pending, and in preparation – and was named “Inventor of the Year” by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 2001.