Road to Duke
The Zafirovski family has a Wikipedia page that takes longer to read than most college basketball profiles. Mike Zafirovski — Todd's father — was born November 14, 1953 in Skopje, in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now the capital of North Macedonia). In 1969, when Mike was 16, the Zafirovski family immigrated to the United States. They arrived in Cleveland, Ohio with $1,500 to their name, and they spoke no English. Two years later, Mike entered Edinboro University of Pennsylvania on a swimming scholarship. He captained both the soccer and swim teams there. He went on to spend 25 years at General Electric under Jack Welch's leadership-development program, served as CEO of five GE businesses, became President and COO of Motorola, and finally took the corner office as CEO of Nortel Networks from 2005 to 2009. He was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2004, the Medal of Honor from the President of Macedonia in 2013, served on Boeing's board from 2004 to 2020, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. He sits today on the Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center advisory board at Duke. By any reasonable accounting, Mike Zafirovski is one of the most accomplished Macedonian-American business executives in modern history.
Todd Alexander Zafirovski was born into that family on June 2, 1990 in Edina, Minnesota — the third of three sons. His mother Robin had been married to Mike for 39 years (and counting). The family eventually settled in Lake Forest, Illinois, an affluent suburb on Chicago's North Shore, after Mike's career took him from GE to Motorola. Lake Forest is the kind of town where the local diner — the Deer Path Inn — is where executives have 7 a.m. breakfasts about which Fortune 500 board to join next.
Todd attended Lake Forest Academy, the small private prep school in town. He played varsity basketball for four years there and grew into a 6'9", 245-pound forward. As a sophomore he averaged 16 points and 7 rebounds. As a junior, 13 and 7. As a senior, 11 and 8. He was named first-team all-conference as a senior, second-team all-conference as a junior and sophomore, and was selected to the 2007 St. George Invitational All-Tournament Team. Lake Forest Academy compiled a 31-1 league record across his career and won three conference titles. The team also claimed titles at the 2008 WRA Invite, 2007 Midwest Prep Classic, and 2006 Boys Club of New York Holiday Tournament.
Across town in Lake Forest's public school, Matt Vogrich was doing similar work. The two became childhood friends and frequent pickup-game opponents. Because Vogrich went to public Lake Forest High School and Zafirovski went to private Lake Forest Academy, the two schools rarely played — but they would lobby their high school coaches to schedule games anyway. Vogrich went on to play at Michigan. Years later, when their teams met at Cameron Indoor Stadium for ACC/Big Ten Challenge games, Vogrich would text Todd before tip-off: "I just want to let you know, I'm still 2-0 against you." Vogrich said before one game: "He's one of my best friends. It'll be cool. Before the game, I'll say hi to him, maybe give him a hug or a handshake and then we want to beat (them) so I won't talk to him."
Todd had no Division I scholarship offers. He had something better: the family pedigree, the academic credentials, and a father whose name was on the Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center letterhead. He arrived at Duke in fall 2009 as a redshirt walk-on, jersey No. 52.
At Duke
The 2009-10 Duke season was the championship year. Jon Scheyer at the point, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler on the wings, Brian Zoubek and the Plumlees in the middle. Casey Peters was a fellow walk-on. Todd Zafirovski was on the practice squad as a redshirt freshman, watching from inside the program as Duke broke its long title drought and beat Butler in Indianapolis on April 5, 2010. He didn't play in any games during the championship season — but he was in the building, in the locker room, and in the photo. He's a 2010 NCAA Champion the way every member of a championship roster is a champion: by being there.
His sophomore season — 2010-11 — was when he got onto the floor. He played in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Hampton on March 18, 2011 — picking up a couple of minutes in a 87-45 Duke win that turned out to be Coach K's tune-up before the regional semifinal. He logged his first career ACC appearance against N.C. State that same season. He came off the bench against Presbyterian on November 12, 2010 and grabbed his first career rebound in three minutes of action.
The junior year — 2011-12 — was when the Zafirovski family heritage briefly turned into international news. In February 2012, Todd was named to the Macedonian Basketball Team's roster pool — even though, as the Duke Basketball Report noted at the time, "they have not seen him play and despite not currently having citizenship." His father's Skopje birth qualified him for FIBA dual-eligibility consideration, and the Macedonian federation, recognizing both the bloodline and the publicity value, added the Duke walk-on to its training group. Todd never actually suited up for the Macedonian senior national team, but the listing made the news cycle and confirmed that his FIBA passport was open if he ever wanted to use it.
That same junior year, Coach K rewarded him with a scholarship for the 2011-12 season. The walk-on label came off; the high jersey number stayed. He recorded his first career block against Wake Forest on January 19, 2012 and grabbed his second career rebound in the same game.
His senior year academically — 2012-13 — was when the basketball produced his best statistical moment. On December 19, 2012, against Cornell, Zafirovski scored a career-high three points (1-of-1 from the field, plus his first career free throw) with one rebound in four minutes. Earlier that season, on December 1, he had recorded two points and a block in six minutes against Delaware.
Then came something rare for Duke walk-ons: a fifth year on the team as a graduate student. Zafirovski had graduated from Duke in May 2013 with a B.A. in Psychology and a Markets and Management Studies certificate, then enrolled in the Fuqua School of Business for the 2013-14 season — the year Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood arrived. He stayed on the basketball roster as a graduate-student walk-on for that fifth year, making him one of the few players in Coach K's tenure to wear a Duke uniform across five seasons.
His 2013-14 senior basketball profile interview captured the experience in his own words. Asked his three favorite things about being a Duke student-athlete, he said: "The first one is just being a student here. It is pretty unbelievable to be here for five years, being a graduate and then being in grad school is something you don't get to do a lot. I love being able to meet the students. Some of these kids are unbelievable and are doing amazing things all around you, and it is cool to be part of that. And three is the fans. It's fun to be part of this and all the support you get."
His favorite on-court memory was the simple one. "My favorite on-court memory would probably be scoring my first bucket. That was a fun moment for me and something I will always remember."
His favorite off-day plan: "Probably go to the gardens and walk around, then go to the movies." His favorite Durham restaurants: Pizza Mia, Sushi Love, and Kanki.
Final career ledger across four playing seasons (2010-11 through 2013-14): 20 games, 0.3 points per game, 0.3 rebounds per game, 28.6% from the field, one career block, one career assist. The most consequential statistic on the page was the same one Casey Peters had earned: he had been on the bench during the 2010 championship season and had been awarded a scholarship despite never producing a meaningful box score. The relationships were the asset. The Coach K education was the asset. The Fuqua MBA-pace coursework was the asset.
After Duke
The post-Duke career was a study in scaling. Zafirovski left Durham in 2014 with a Duke undergraduate degree, a Markets and Management Studies certificate, and a Fuqua School of Business credential. The first stop was Uber — the ride-sharing platform then in its hyper-growth phase, expanding from city to city across North America in monthly cycles.
Todd spent four years in operations at Uber between 2014 and 2018. The internal track record, per his Zaf Group bio: he personally launched more than 25 cities across the United States and Canada, and he helped run Uber's North American Airports business. The job was the kind of unglamorous, high-leverage work that turns a 24-year-old Duke graduate into a competent operations executive: scout the market, negotiate with regulators and airports, recruit and onboard drivers, manage the local team through the politically fraught launch period, and hand off a working unit to a city manager. The skills were the same skills his father had learned at GE under Jack Welch: take a market the company doesn't yet operate in, build it, hand it off, and move to the next one.
In early 2018, Zafirovski left Uber and joined ACP CreativIT — a Chicago-based IT solutions provider — as an account executive. The company was a family-run technology business of the kind his father's investment platform, The Zaf Group, would soon make a target for "perpetual ownership" acquisitions. (Mike Zafirovski had launched The Zaf Group in 2019 with a stated thesis of acquiring well-run family businesses with the intention of owning in perpetuity, rather than flipping them. ACP CreativIT became one of TZG's portfolio companies.)
Todd advanced inside ACP CreativIT from account executive to Regional Sales Manager, the role he holds today. The Zaf Group's published bio describes the trajectory: "Joined ACP CreativIT in early 2018 as an account executive. Over the last several years, he has worked with some of our most important clients along with moving into a new role as Regional Sales Manager."
Todd is also a Vice President of Business Development at The Zaf Group itself, where he plays a role in sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities and supports management teams of TZG's portfolio companies on growth strategies. The Zaf Group bio notes his marketing and sales expertise alongside his sports background — he is described as "Passionate about sports and endurance athletics — an avid fan and regular marathon runner. Proud father of three, bringing the same values of commitment, discipline, and teamwork to both professional and personal life."
The Zaf Group employs all three Zafirovski sons. The father — Mike — is Founder, Chairman, and President. Todd's two brothers also work in the family enterprise. The son who ran the practice scout team for Coach K's national championship roster is now running ACP CreativIT's Chicago region while sourcing deals for the family's investment platform on the side.
Where Is He Now
Zafirovski is Regional Sales Manager at ACP CreativIT (Chicago) and Vice President of Business Development at The Zaf Group. He is a proud father of three. He is a marathon runner. He has been at the intersection of operating and investing roles for more than a decade — first at Uber (2014-18), where he launched 25+ cities across North America and helped run the North American Airports business, then at ACP CreativIT (2018-present), where he advanced from account executive to regional sales leadership while ACP became a Zaf Group portfolio company.
His father Mike's foundational principle, articulated repeatedly in podcasts and commencement addresses across the past decade, is that mentorship is what turns immigrants with $1,500 and no English into Fortune 500 CEOs. The principle has been transmitted across the generations. Todd Zafirovski's path — Lake Forest Academy → Duke walk-on → 2010 NCAA Champion → Fuqua → Uber operations → ACP CreativIT regional leadership → The Zaf Group VP — is a Macedonian-American family business case study in compounding. The father arrived as a teenager with a Yugoslav passport and built a corporate career across GE, Motorola, and Nortel. The son arrived at Duke as a Lake Forest Academy walk-on with a high jersey number and built a portfolio of operational and investment roles that quietly mirror his father's playbook. The Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center, where Mike Zafirovski sits on the advisory board, has the family connection on its letterhead. The Zafirovski-Duke relationship will outlive any individual season.