Mike S. Zafirovski was selected to succeed Bill Owens as Nortel's president and CEO on November 15th, 2005. 
Zafirovski (51) most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Motorola (2002 to 2005). He joined Motorola in 2000 as president and CEO of its Personal Communications Sector division. From 1975 to 2000, Zafirovski held a succession of executive positions at General Electric's key divisions: president and CEO, GE Lighting; president, GE Capital Mortgage Corporation; and president and CEO, GE Capital Fleet Services.
Upon leaving Nortel, Bill Owens will continue his engagements around the world in serving on various boards, in promoting good governance, and will continue to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors as well as his philanthropic interests.
http://www.nortel.com
- In April 2004, Nortel Networks named William Owens as its new president and CEO, replacing Frank Dunn, who was dismissed "for cause." At the time,Nortel Networks also fired its former chief financial officer, Douglas Beatty, and former controller, Michael Gollogly, both of whom had been placed on paid leave of absence by Nortel Networks on 15-March-2004. The company has since announced a number of reorganizations and executive changes. Bill Owens had previously served as chairman and CEO of Teledesic LLC, a satellite communications company.
- In September 2005, Nortel announced a corporate reorganization of its product, technology, services, operations and sales structure to better meet the needs of global enterprise and carrier customers in the converged marketplace. The new organization simplifies Nortel's structure into two product groups:
* Enterprise Solutions and Packet Networks, which will be led by Steve Slattery. Nortel said that in order to better serve global enterprise customers, it is combining core assets such as Ethernet and enterprise telephony, optical, and wireline data into a unified product group to better leverage core technology and hardware platforms for enterprises while fulfilling the requirements of carrier customers.
* Mobility and Converged Core Networks, which will be led by Richard Lowe. This group consolidates the company's mobile businesses and combines them with core network technologies, reinforcing the wireless market as a vital element of current and future revenue growth.
