Portal:Nortel/Selected biography/5

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Mike S. Zafirovski (b. 1954, in Skopje, present day Republic of Macedonia) His education consists of Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Edinboro University, Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Edinboro University.

Mr. 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. 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. 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. Nortel agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle the suit. Zafirovski became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nortel Networks, replacing Bill Owens as of November 15, 2005.

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

In July 2007 President George W. Bush appointed Mr. Zafirovski to the NSTAC, where he serves as a resource for the President and his national security team in efforts to safeguard critical U.S. infrastructure and telecommunications networks. In this capacity, Zafirovski participates in discussions on a broad range of policy and technical issues related to telecommunications, critical infrastructure protection, homeland security, and other security concerns.