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CQR 2008 CHAIRMAN’S AWARD
The Technical Committee on Communications Quality & Reliability (CQR) is an IEEE Communications Society international professional organization that is unique in its service to the quality, reliability and security professionals of the global communications industry. The IEEE Communications Society President Doug Zuckerman and CQR Chair Chi-Ming Chen, AT&T, honored Karl Rauscher and Hossein Eslambolchi with the 2008 CQR Chairman’s Award at an awards ceremony during the annual CQR International Workshop in Carefree, Arizona on April 30, 2008.
Criteria upon which recipients were selected include:
sustained contributions in the field of Quality, Reliability & Security of communications services, networks or systems;
a demonstration of the core value of a professional society- adding value to others; and
integrity consistent with that of a role model.
for untiring efforts in the areas of improved reliability, national security, and service to the public through innovative use of and improvement to the communications infrastructure.
Karl Rauscher has been a leader in the world's most prominent quality organizations, serving in key roles in the U.S. President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) Industry Executive Sub-committee, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC), and U.S. FCC Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC), where he oversaw the development of over 700 industry Best Practices. He led a highly relevant study of the communications networks of Europe, aimed at increasing the availability and robustness of the services that the citizens of the European Union depend upon for public safety and economic stability. He has envisioned and implemented numerous projects that resulted in substantially improving the availability of public communications services for countless individuals around the world. He is a much sought-after thought leader and advisor, his opinions and leadership being highly respected by government and communications industry leaders on five continents. Karl is a member of one of the scientific communities' most prestigious circles - as a Bell Labs Fellow he has been honored for leading the effort that achieved the first 6 9's network availability - an industry milestone, and for his visionary leadership in architecting the instrinsic vulnerability-based critical infrastructure protection framework.
Nowhere is his spirit of service more evident than during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Karl identified the value that advanced wireless technology could have in support of traditional search and rescue efforts and pulled together industry members to establish the Wireless Emergency Response Team (WERT). Working tirelessly in the days following the attacks, Karl coordinated the efforts of multiple industry members to search the rubble for survivors, identify bogus calls for help to prevent rescuers from risking their lives needlessly, and provide information to concerned families. WERT was also activated for rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina, where Karl again led the team in searching for lost survivors and others who might need help.
In keeping with his dedication to quality and reliability, Karl holds himself to a higher standard. A tireless proponent of quality, he pushes people to achieve higher levels of quality in every situation - often delivering dramatic quality improvements and cost savings simultaneously. He is constantly looking for innovative ways to address any problem he encounters, as is evidenced in his inventions - with over 50 patents, issued and pending. Karl has been featured as a business and technology leader in numerous high profile media and is the recipient of numerous awards He devotes much of his own personal time to furthering the goals of the IEEE and expanding its influence. For many people, Karl’s name is synonymous with reliability, dedication and integrity.
Karl Rauscher has served as the CQR Chair (2004-2005) and Advisory Board Chair (2006-2007).
Karl Rauscher receiving the 2008 CQR Chairman's Award from Doug Zuckerman and Chi-Ming Chen
for leadership in converging networks to IP while instilling high quality, reliability and security standards throughout the technology and service transformation.
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 recently published book “2020 Vision” has set the foundation of communications industry for 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). 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 for 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.
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 operation support systems and customer service systems underlying AT&T's 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.
Hossein 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. Hossein holds over 1000 worldwide patents – Issued, Pending and in preparation - and was named as one of the most prolific innovator and visionary in communications industry and was named “Inventor of the Year” by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 2001.
Dr. Eslambolchi was CQR’s Keynote Speaker in 1999 and 2000. He has been a strong supporter of CQR’s activities.
Hossein Eslambolchi receiving the 2008 CQR Chairman's Award from Doug Zuckerman and Chi-Ming Chen
Last updated on Thursday, June 19, 2008