Overview
Join us for a compelling conversation with three corporate leaders who will share how charity work, including volunteering or serving on boards, advanced their careers. Whether you're just starting out or navigating mid-career decisions, this session will offer valuable insights into how charitable involvement can elevate your career and influence hiring decisions. Refreshments will be served.
You’ll Learn:
How to think strategically about joining not-for-profit boards
What to consider before accepting a board position
Why charitable involvement can set candidates apart in today’s job market
Featured Speakers:
Mike Zafirovski – Former GE executive and protégé of Jack Welch
Laura Coy – Head of Philanthropy, William Blair
Rick King – Not-for-profit recruiter and author of From Profit to Purpose
This is a free event. Register by August 29.
Speakers
Mike Zafirovski
Founder, Chairman, and President, The Zaf Group
Mike Zafirovski is the Founder, Chairman, and President of The Zaf Group, a family office engaged in operating, investment, and advisory activities. The operating activities include acquiring well-run family businesses with the intention of owning in perpetuity. Currently, the two platform companies are ACP CreativIT, an IT solutions provider and ABCO Systems, a material handling systems integrator for warehouses and distribution centers. Mike is the chairman of both companies, and Mike’s wife Robin is the co-chair of The Zaf Group as well as on the board of ABCO Systems.
Formerly, Mike was an executive advisor to The Blackstone Group (2011-2021) and served on the board of directors of Boeing (2004-2020), Stericycle (2012-2022), Apria Healthcare (2011-2022), Nortel (2006-2009), Motorola (2002-2005), several Blackstone portfolio companies.
During his corporate career, Mike served as President/CEO at Nortel, Motorola, and five GE businesses. In 21 years of direct P&L responsibility, revenue growth exceeded 8% per year, annual productivity averaged over 6%, and EBITDA margin increases averaged 350bps per year.
From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Zafirovski was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), providing recommendations to the President on a wide range of policy issues related to telecommunications, IT, cybersecurity, and other national security concerns.
The Zafirovski Family Foundation (established in 2005) activities focus on education, healthcare, faith-based ministries, and economic development. A native of Macedonia, Mike is co-founder and director of Macedonia 2025 (www.macedonia2025.com), an organization dedicated to enhancing the country’s economic and democratic development. One of the programs (Zafirovski Executive Development), in partnership with the Kellogg School of Management, is accelerating the development of 100 future CEOs and CXOs in the country.
Mike is on Board of Directors of the Special Olympics (www.SpecialOlympics.org) and on Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center Advisory Board. His other philanthropic and civic involvements include: Council of Chief Executives (member, former Chairman), The CEO Forum (member, https://theceoforum.org/Home), American Enterprise Institute (member of National Council), The Halftime Institute (http://halftimeinstitute.org/, completed the Fellows Program in 2017), The Economic Club of Chicago (member, former director), and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs (member). Mike is co-founder of the Faith at Work ministry at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, Il. Mike is the former Chairman of AUSL (www.ausl-chicago.org), an organization that developed teachers to excel in the urban environment and drove education equity at some of the most challenged public schools in Chicago.
Mike holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, where he captained the soccer and swimming teams. In 2002, Edinboro University awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in public service. He is a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He and his wife Robin are former national chairs of Duke University’s Parents’ Committee.
He has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2004); the Distinguished Leadership Award from the NY Hall of Science (2008); the Medal of Honor from the President of Macedonia (2013); and the inagural John L. Bitove Philanthropy Award (2017). In 2018, the Navy Seal Foundation bestowed on Mike and his wife Robin the “Patriot Award,” in recognition of their extensive philanthropic contributions to society, commitment to the Navy Seal community, and spirit and example of patriotism. In 2021, AUSL recognized Mike and Robin for their leadership impact in education.
Mike and Robin, married for 41 years, have three married sons and nine grandchildren. All three sons are involved in The Zaf Group. Mike’s hobbies include anything with family, mentoring, friends, travel, and sports (he completed the Kona Ironman Triathlon in 2018, the NYC marathon in 2021, and is beginning to take golf seriously).
Laura Coy
Partner, Head of Philanthropy & Sustainability, William Blair
Laura Coy is responsible for overseeing William Blair’s philanthropy and sustainability teams and responsibilities. In this role, she works closely with clients, key stakeholders, and colleagues around the world to develop and optimize their sustainability efforts and charitable giving.
Laura works as a trusted advisor to high-net worth families, family offices, foundations, institutions, executives, boards, management teams, and investors on their sustainability programs and philanthropic planning. Laura also leads the firm’s operational sustainability efforts and impact investing initiatives. For the past nine years, Laura has overseen William Blair’s growing, global community engagement initiatives with a mission to inspire the next generation of philanthropists through its employee-centered matching and global grants programs.
Before joining William Blair, Laura was the senior manager of corporate social responsibility, public affairs manager, and senior corporate philanthropist for W.W. Grainger, Inc. While at Grainger, she designed and led its premier Corporate Social Responsibility program. Prior to working at Grainger, Laura worked for nonprofits including the National Alzheimer’s Association and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Laura serves on the leadership committee of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, the advisory board of ShowerUp Chicago, the leadership council of Loyola’s Baumhart Center, and is the board chair of North Park Elementary School. Laura received her B.S. in political science from the University of Illinois.
Rick King
Chairman, Kittleman & Associates, LLC
Rick has over 50 years of nonprofit leadership experience as a nationally known nonprofit executive search consultant and nonprofit chief executive officer.
He was the company’s second President, following the founder, Jim Kittleman, in 1985. He has served as the lead consultant on hundreds of searches for chief executive officers as well as for senior-level management leaders for nonprofit organizations. He is a well-known consultant and educator in nonprofit leadership succession planning and is the author of From Making a Profit to Making a Difference (2000), the first book written on business career transition into nonprofit sector leadership.
Rick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology/Sociology from Illinois Wesleyan University, a Master of Social Work degree from Florida State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Dominican University. He is a founding member of the National Network of Nonprofit Search Consultants.
During his career he served on the Board of Trustees of Dominican University and Illinois Wesleyan University as well as the Board of Directors of Three Pillars Initiative, First Nonprofit Insurance Companies, American Public Garden Association, Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation and Co-Founder and Life Member of Chrisholm Historic Farmstead in Bulter County, Ohio.