Speaker: Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi

Topic: The Power of Technology to Transform the Future

Wednesday February 28, 2007

In this talk, Dr. Eslambolchi will present how the power of technology will transform the future. He will describe what he views on the top technology trends over the next several years. He will discuss how these technologies will transform the world and our daily lives. He will present the evolution and future direction of Information Communication integral to every aspect of society: Digital Government, Commerce, Health Care, Education, Security, Military, and Arts & Culture. Dr. Eslambolchi will explore the resulting challenges and research opportunities for academia, industry, business, and society.

In addition, Dr. Eslambolchi will examine in depth how new and emerging technologies such as Services over IP (Internet Protocol), radio frequency identification, distributed computing, sensor networks, Security Services and grid computing can be applied to help today's new model CIOs and CTOs drive results to the top and bottom lines of his or her enterprise -- and to ensure the success of the enterprise in the 21st century. In essence, it offers a technology vision for 2020.

All this aligning technology is to meet the business demands of cost-containment, customer satisfaction, and compliance, as well as coping with the explosion of new products and services that must take place in near real-time. And the environment is tough, too. Markets are disappearing, combining, cannibalizing. Global workforce needs to be retrained, redistributed, or disbanded altogether. Factories and plants are closing, and jobs are disappearing. It's overwhelming, sometimes even a little paralyzing, thus requiring full understanding of impacting these technologies in our daily lives become paramount to be able to success in the next 2 decades.

Dr. Eslambolchi will also cut through digital clutter and describe what he views as the top technology trends over the next two decade.

He will also show how these major trends are already impacting the communications industry in 21^st century.

HOSSEIN ESLAMBOLCHI, PH.D

Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi is chairman and CEO of Divvio Inc., a Web portal that allows users to build personalized "channels" of digital content by leveraging the best and most advanced adaptive learning technologies and Web 2.0 community behavior. He is also chairman of 2020 Venture Partners, which provides technology and operations consulting to private equity firms and venture capitalists in the area of telecommunications infrastructure.

For nearly two decades, Dr. Eslambolchi led the transformation of AT&T's network, systems and services. He left AT&T 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."

Dr. Eslambolchi served as Chief Technology Officer 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. His recent published book "2020 Vision" has set the foundation of communications industry over the next two decades.

Light Reading said that "[Dr. 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 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" (Jan. 22, 2005).

In addition to serving as CTO, 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 21^st 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.

As President of Global Network Services, Dr. Eslambolchi 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. 

Dr. Eslambolchi has won numerous Awards including notable AT&T Science and Technology Medal and became AT&T Fellow and received the most prestigious technical award in 2002 given to any individual in history of AT&T Communications.

Dr. Eslambolchi holds over 1000 worldwide patents - Issued, Pending and in preparation - and was named as one of the most prolific innovator and visionary of the past 21^st century and was named "Inventor of the Year" by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 2001 - Feat matched by Thomas Alva Edison and Albert Einstein. Hossein received his BS, MS and PH.D in Electrical Engineering from University of California, San Diego.

Eslambolchi is "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" - The New York Times, 1/22/2005

Eslambolchi is "a critical player in maintaining AT&T's status as a technology leader" - BusinessWeek, 12/30/2005

"[Eslambolchi's] evangelizing has underscored the notion of where the entire communications infrastructure is heading" - Light Reading, 11/2003