Prof. Riaz Esmailzadeh has been active in the ICT industry for more than 26 years, from a research engineer, to research manager, entrepreneur, educator and consultant. In this time he has been employed by, or consulted for a number of companies including Apple, Docomo, Ericsson, Hitachi, Samsung, Softbank and Telstra. He co-founded two IT start ups in Japan which raised more $100 million in funding and which ultimately failed! Over this period Riaz has applied for 50 patents, 26 of which have been granted. A number of these patents are essential to the operation of 3G mobile networks. He is also an author of more than 50 peer reviewed articles and three books on broadband communications technology and management.
Riaz and his supervisor were the first to propose the TDD mode of CDMA mobile communications in 1991 as part of his PhD thesis. The principles he developed have formed the basis for the TDD mode of 3GPP standards.
Riaz has also been asked to represent several companies as expert witness in patent litigations. The most prominent was in 2012-3, when he represented Apple Inc. as a technology expert witness in their litigation vs. Samsung at the federal court in Australia.
Since August 2006 Riaz has been with Carnegie Mellon University, where he is currently an Associate Professor, focusing on Information Technology and Management. He teaches topics on Telecom, E- and M-Commerce, and entrepreneurship. He has also conducted industry seminars on the evolving role of CIOs.
