Al Blackburn, Vice President – Domain 2.0 Architecture and Planning, is responsible for leading the transformation of AT&T’s network to be the premiere secure, open/programmable, software driven network in the industry. His responsibilities include end to end architecture leadership, industry engagements and standards, and distributed real-time software development for Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management, and Policy (ECOMP) for AT&T’s User Defined Network Cloud (UDNC).Al was previously Executive Director for AT&T’s network architecture organization with responsibility for wireless & wireline, access, metro, and core network evolution and associated roadmaps.Al joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1983. His roles since then have spanned Hardware and Software development, systems engineering, field support, system test, software engineering, real-time systems, exploratory development, and network architecture.  In 1993 he moved to Atlanta and joined BellSouth where he focused on BellSouth’s data centric network evolution. Al holds an Executive Management certificate from Emory University, a Technical Management certificate from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Masters in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering Technology from DeVry Institute of Technology.Al and his wife Sarah live in Atlanta where they are now officially empty nesters. They enjoy traveling and spending time with family and friends. They have three grown children, “AJ”, Brittany, and Ben. They have two grandchildren, Jack and Shelby.