Mike Zafirovski is an Executive Advisor to Blackstone, and serves on the board of directors of three  of Blackstone’s portfolio companies: non-executive chairman of DJO Global and PGI and independent director of Apria Healthcare Services. Since 2004, he has also served on the board of directors of Boeing, and since  2012, on the board of Stericycle.

Mr. Zafirovski is a founder and president of The Zaf Group, a management consulting and investment firm. Previously, Mr. Zafirovski served as President and CEO of Nortel, a global communications technology company; President and COO of Motorola; and during a 25-year career at GE, served as President and CEO of five GE businesses in the consumer, industrial and financial services arenas.

Among his education, civic and philanthropic activities, he is Vice Chairman of AUSL, the organization that helps turn around the most challenged public schools in Chicago. He is a visiting lecturer at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. A Macedonia native, he is a founding director and chairman of Macedonia 2025, an organization aiming to improve the country’s economic and democracy developments. He is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Council of Global Affairs.

From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Zafirovski was a presidential appointee to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). NSTAC provides analytics and recommendations to the President on a wide range of policy and technical issues related to telecommunications, information systems, information assurance, infrastructure protection, and other national security and emergency preparedness concerns.

Mr. Zafirovski holds a B.A. in mathematics from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania.