The day it ended for Nortel Networks
Former Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski
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James Bagnall, Canwest News Service
Mike Zafirovski was troubled by the week's events when he headed out for a late Friday night dinner with friends in Toronto.
The tall, lean workaholic had once boasted openly about how he was going to lead a turnaround of historic proportion at Nortel Networks. Now the collapse of the economy had buckled his ambitions for the troubled telecommunications equipment giant.
On Jan. 9, 2009, 11 Nortel directors – Zafirovski included – gathered for the second time in as many days in the boardroom of a small office complex near Toronto's international airport.
They were stewards of one of Canada's oldest and most famous corporations. But the once legendary paper wealth of their company had vanished like so much pixie dust in the wake of the great telecom crash. And now the global recession threatened Nortel's remaining cash reserves.
The failing firm's board included former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt. He resigned in August along with other directors and Zafirovski.
Nortel still has 1,700 employees in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.
Read the entire story in the Calgary Herald.
Copyright 2012 WRAL Tech Wire. All rights reserved.
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