Does Zafirovski Keep Hackney?

By Mark Evans | Published: February 22, 2007

Hackney
When CEO Mike Zafirovski was rebuilding Nortel’s senior management team last year, he wanted to attract high-quality people with strong character, which made sense given the accounting scandal that had engulfed the company in 2004 and 2005. So, what does Zafirovski do with Joel Hackney, senior v.p. of operations and quality, who admitted he was guilty of false imprisonment, assault on a female and communicating threats following a road rage incident in a parking lot after a basketball event last October in North Carolina?

According to the criminal complaint filed against Hackney, he cut off Alicia Ogden in his Audi SUV. When she honked at him, he got out of his car and asked if she had a problem. “He then grabbed the left side of my face,” Ogden said in the affidavit. “I told him not to touch me and he responded that he’ll do what he wants.” (Source: The News Observer) So does Zafirovski keep Hackney, who has agreed to 50 hours of community service and written an apology to Ogden, or does he cut him loose?

Prediction: Hackney gets a slap on the wrist but the incident gets brushed aside as a first-offender, he’s truly sorry, will-never-happen-again kind of thing. Either that or Hackney “resigns” with a nice package.

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  • Another Nortel Employee

    Joel is a loser and should be fired. Us bottom dwellers are indeed even more cynical than ever before. Mike Z seems to be a lot of hot air.

  • LT Nortel Employee

    Everyone Get over it….Mike Z after due diligence made his decision …grow up and live with it…if not….you knuckle heads in RTP go work at the Raleigh Sanitation Dept…..or get back to work….

  • Nortel Employee

    JH is a Pharaoh. His managerment style is “My way or no way”. It’s not surprise.
    MikeZ is a COO. He never ever be a CEO. He knows how to save money, but earn money.

  • mane

    “…grow up and live with it…”

    Gee, how to respond? What Would The Joel Say?

    “We’ll do whatever we want.”

    When Joel echoes his masters Own It! he pronounces it PWN it!

    Your newest bosses might not be into creative accounting, but I expect they will inevitably act out their leadership fantasies a la their new business partners and mentors at Microsoft everytime NT stock goes up a cent or two.

  • Observer

    Fire him? His CEO buddy promoted him!

    Astounding and beyond belief? Why? Surprises seem to be the norm than exception at Nortel.

  • DissappointedShareholder

    Look at this article. It really measures the performance of Operations at Nortel, the area JJ ran before he was promoted to Pres. Not too good…must have been something other than performance that got him the promotion.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/12/07/4-stocks-for-fast-cash.aspx

  • x-nortel employee

    Well, it’s March 2008, and many months have passed since this incident.

    Mike Z. kept J Hackney and in fact, gave him a promotion… seems to me it’s not what you do, it’s who you know.

    BTW, stocks are at the lowest level since.. 1982? or somewhere around there…

    IMHO, M.Z seemed like a nice person, until you realize he will be getting $10M in bonus for his performance of 2007, and in parallel, he needs to layoff 2100 people so his margins work out…

    Things that make you go. hmmmmm

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