Professor Riaz Esmailzadeh has been an ICT professional for more than 35 years, from a researcher to entrepreneur, CEO, CTO, educator, and a business consultant.

Riaz has been employed by, consulted for, or advised many companies including Apple, Softbank, Telstra, Samsung, Docomo, Ericsson, and Hitachi. Further, he has represented several companies as expert witness in patent litigations. The most prominent was in 2011-13, when he represented Apple Inc. as a technology and business expert witness in their litigation vs. Samsung at the federal court in Australia, covering areas in Prior Art, Standardisation and Commercialisation, and in 2022-23 when he advised Apple on filing a patent on cryptography. He was also the technology due diligence expert for a $20 billion dollar investment in a new 3G network rollout in 2007-2010.

In addition, Riaz has been a member of several governance and advisory boards, including AustCyber South Australia node since 2018, and Portalink Ltd, a B2B Integration Software company since 2016.

Riaz has been a prolific innovator: he has applied for more than 50 patents, 26 of which have been granted in the US alone. A number of these patents are standard essential to the operation of broadband mobile telecommunications networks. He is also an author of three books and more than 50 peer reviewed articles on broadband communications technology and management, and topics on digital transformation.

As a full professor at Carnegie Mellon University Australia, Riaz taught and consulted on Digital Transformation, Broadband Telecommunications, Blockchain Technologies, Decision Making under Uncertainty and Risk Management, and blockchain. In addition, he directed the cyber security specialization education program.

Riaz advises CEOs, C-level executives, and business owners on how to take advantage of the strategic benefits information technology provides.