Mike S. Zafirovski

Mike S. Zafirovski (born c. 1954) is a Macedonian American^[1][2] businessman.

Mike S. Zafirovski Most Recent Occupation: CEO of Nortel Networks Known Organizational Involvements Boeing Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago The Economic Club Of Chicago General Electric Macedonian Arts Council Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) Nortel Networks United Way of Chicago Education: Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Edinboro University, Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Edinboro University

Zafirovski at a conference in Las Vegas

Personal life

Zafirovski was born in Skopje, Socialist Republic of Macedonia, present-day the Republic of Macedonia. He immigrated to United States in 1969, arriving in Cleveland, Ohio with his family, $1500 dollars among them and speaking no English. ^{[3] [4]} Two years later, he entered Edinboro University on a swimming scholarship. In 2004, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. ^[5]

Career

Zafirovski spent 24 years with General Electric, starting in 1975, where he went through GE's Jack Welch-style leadership training programs and served in various management positions. Between 1996 and 1999, he was head of the European division of GE Lighting, during which time the division posted record profits. He was then promoted to his last position at GE, as President and CEO of GE Lighting from July 1999 to May 2000.

Afterwards, he joined Motorola, serving as Executive Vice President and President of the Personal Communications Sector from June 2000 until July 2002. In 2002, he was passed over for the promotion to Chief Operating Officer for Edward Breen, but Breen quit later that year and Zafirovski was given the title in July 2002. His success in the PCS division among other achievements at Motorola, seemed to make him a perfect candidate for the CEO position but the title went to Edward Zander on January 5, 2004. Zafirovski resigned on January 12, 2005.^[6] He was a consultant to and a director of Motorola from then until May 2005.

When Zafirovski was chosen to head up Nortel Networks in early October, Motorola filed a suit against him, alleging that his new position would break the terms of the non-disclosure agreement he had signed. As part of that agreement , he had received a payoff from Motorola. The payoff had a clawback element should Zafirovski return to work within a defined period he would agree to refund a percentage of the payoff. The problem was he did not want to refund any of the money. As a consequence Nortel agreed to pay $11.5 million on his behalf.^[7] Zafirovski became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nortel Networks, replacing Bill Owens as of November 15, 2005.

Zafirovski announced he was stepping down as CEO of Nortel on August 10, 2009, following the sale of the company's CDMA and LTE businesses to Ericsson as part of a bankruptcy restructuring process.^[8][9]

He was elected to the Board of Directors at Boeing on October 25, 2004.^[10]

In July 2007 President George W. Bush appointed Zafirovski to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.^[11][12]

In August 2009, Mike Zafirovski sought $12 million payout from Nortel.^[13]

Family

He has a wife named Robin and three sons.

See also

• Nortel
• Motorola

References

1. ^ UMD interview
2. ^ Nortel Bio of Mike which the statements "Native of Macedonia" and "Zafirovski serves on (...) the Macedonian Arts Council
3. ^ "Mike Zafirovski: CEO of Nortel Networks Corporation". PA State System of Higher Education website. Archived from the original on 2006-09-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20060902001544/http://www.passhe.edu/content/?/profiles/alumni/zafirovski. Retrieved 2006-09-05. 
4. ^ McLean, Catherine. "Mr. Fix-It takes on his biggest challenge". globeandmail.com. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060623.wr-cover24.V155/BNStory/Technology/home. Retrieved 2006-09-05. 
5. ^ "All Medalists 1986-2000". NECO website. http://www.neco.org/medalists_all02.html#Z. Retrieved 2006-09-05. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Mutschler, Ann. "Motorola President, COO Zafirovski to Resign". EDN.com. http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/article/CA495752.html. Retrieved 2006-09-05. 
7. ^ McMillan, Robert. "Motorola, Nortel settle Zafirovski dispute". infoworld.com. http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/10/31/HNmotorolanortel_1.html. Retrieved 2006-09-05. 
8. ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a6_WxYgIpER0
9. ^ http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100260088&locale=en-US
10. ^ "Motorola's Mike Zafirovski Elected to Boeing Board of Directors". Boeing Press Releases. http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2004/q4/nr_041025a.html. Retrieved 2006-09-05. 
11. ^ http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=8398c544-9e59-49be-8cd7-d7d118af1d41
12. ^ http://www.ncs.gov/nstac/nstac_members.html
13. ^ http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=449746

Preceded by Edward Breen	COO of Motorola 2002–2005	Succeeded by -
Preceded by Bill Owens	CEO of Nortel Networks 2005–2009	Succeeded by -

Persondata
Name	Zafirovski, Mike S.
Alternative names
Short description	American business executive
Date of birth	1954
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death