Ali Tizghadam

Fellow & Chief Automation Architect at Telus

Speaker

Ali Tizghadam is a TELUS Fellow and the Chief Automation Architect within the CTO team, spearheading TELUS’s transformation toward self-driving networks using the TM Forum Autonomous Networks (AN) framework. With over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry, Ali brings a unique blend of deep technical expertise and seasoned leadership, having served as VP of Innovation, Director of R&D, startup founder, and technical executive.

His passion for AI and control systems began with his M.A.Sc thesis on stabilizing an inverted pendulum using neural networks and fuzzy logic, and continued through his PhD work inventing a new metric to measure and control network robustness. Throughout his career, he has applied these innovations across transportation and telecommunications, leading major collaborations between academia, government, and industry.

Ali also designed and led the development of TINAA, TELUS’s SDN brain and the operating system for autonomous network operation, and continues to drive the architecture for intent-driven, closed-loop automation. He remains active in open source initiatives and standards bodies — including CAMARA (Telco APIs), IETF, MEF, IEEE, and ACM — with numerous contributions and publications, while maintaining strong academic ties through teaching and research in Autonomous Networks.