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Heritage

Nortel Networks — the Zafirovski years

Closed Nortel entered creditor protection 2009

Telecommunications (affiliated leadership) · Toronto · Greater Toronto Area

Nortel was never a Macedonian company, but from 2005 to 2009 the century-old giant was steered by one: Mike Zafirovski, born in Skopje in 1953, formerly of General Electric and Motorola, who fought to save the firm through its 2009 collapse. He remained one of the diaspora's most decorated executives — Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a Boeing board seat, and the Macedonia 2025 movement he founded, whose Canadian bench remains strong.

Details

Founded
CEO tenure 2005–2009
People
Mike Zafirovski, president & CEO

Sources (1)

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Zafirovski

  • Montecito Restaurant

    Restaurant · Toronto (Entertainment District)

    Closed 2020s

    The Bitove brothers' Entertainment District restaurant, opened with filmmaker Ivan Reitman, carried the family's hospitality name into Toronto's premiere-night...

    Macedonian connection: The Bitove brothers' Adelaide Street restaurant, which sent Mother's Day lunch to Canadian Macedonian Place's residents during the pandemic.

    Sources: https://canadianmacedonianplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CMP-Zdravets-Newsletter_2022.pdf

  • Patrician Grill

    Diner · Toronto (King St E)

    Closed 9 May 2026

    For seventy years the Papas family kept the grill on at 219 King East — Louie, newly arrived from Greek Macedonia in 1953, then his son Terry, serving all-day b...

    Address: 219 King Street East, Toronto

    Macedonian connection: Founded by Louie Papas, a Greek-Macedonian immigrant, and run by his family for seventy years.

    Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/patrician-grill-closing-after-70-years-9.7167062

  • Priszm Income Fund (KFC / Pizza Hut / Taco Bell Canada)

    Quick-service restaurant operator · Vaughan (head office); seven provinces

    Closed CCAA 2011; stores sold by 2012

    For most of a decade, more than half of Canada's KFC outlets — 428 restaurants, nine thousand employees, roughly $450 million in yearly revenue — answered to Pr...

    Macedonian connection: At its height the Bitove-chaired fund ran 428 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants — about 60 per cent of KFC's Canadian outlets.

    Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priszm

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