RBrian Warshawsky, co-founder and current COO of Fenix to succeed the current CEO, Lyndsay Handler.
Jit Bhattacharya, CTO, and Chris Bagnall, Group Marketing Director, step down from the company with succession plans in place. New CFO appointed and Head of Credit position established alongside new Chief Commercial Officer, Junior Zerebela Kwebiiha, within executive team.
Fenix International, a company of ENGIE, offering solar home systems across Africa, has appointed co-founder and current COO Brian Warshawsky to the role of CEO to drive the next phase of the company’s ambitious growth plans. Warshawsky is succeeding Lyndsay Handler who has been with the company for 7 years and served as CEO since 2016. Warshawsky is well-placed to lead the company, having previously spent 5 years at Apple as part of the iPod Operations team before co-founding Fenix International in 2009. Having worked as COO with Fenix from inception, Brian has a deep understanding of the business from product design to manufacturing, country operations, distribution and last-mile customer experience.
Ivan Topalov, who previously served as Corporate Finance Director, has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer following the departure of the previous CFO, Josh Romisher, in June. The company has also appointed a new Head of Customer Credit, Alison Boess, reporting to the CEO.
Yoven Moorooven, CEO of ENGIE Africa, said, “Brian is a highly regarded leader with the right mix of skills and experience to lead this new chapter for Fenix as we continue to establish ourselves as the market leader across Africa. With commercial operations in Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Benin and Mozambique, Fenix is growing from strength to strength. Under Brian’s leadership I’m incredibly excited for the future of our decentralized energy offering in Africa.”
He continued, “I join everyone at ENGIE and the Fenix team in thanking Lyndsay, Jit and Chris for their many years of dedicated service and commitment to the Fenix mission. Under their leadership, Fenix transformed millions of lives across the continent and built an inspiring team that is driven to succeed.”
Brian Warshawsky, newly-appointed CEO, commented, “While it is difficult to say goodbye to such incredible colleagues and collaborators through so many years, I’m proud to be able to continue their legacy. On behalf of the Fenix team I would like to thank Jit for his technology leadership and the work he did to build Fenix Power, our next generation solar home system platform. I would like to thank Chris for his commercial and marketing leadership as Fenix grew from a few customers in Uganda to 500,000 customers across 6 countries in Africa. And I would like to especially thank Lyndsay for leading Fenix through so many milestones, most recently the ENGIE acquisition and establishing Fenix as the strongest off-grid solar home system company in the industry.”
He added, “Backed by a world class product, a world class team and with the full support of ENGIE, I am excited for what we will do to take our life-changing product to customers across the continent. We are now set for an exciting future as we continue our expansion across Africa and achieving universal energy access for all.”
Lyndsay Handler added, “Building Fenix from 2011 to 2017 and accelerating our growth following the acquisition by ENGIE in 2018 has truly been an honour. Together, we have delivered clean, affordable energy to over 500,000 households or 2.5 million people in six countries across Africa. I am especially proud of the way we built a passionate Fenix team based in Africa who are deeply committed to our mission, values, and customers. Looking ahead, I am happy to pass the torch to our co-founder Brian and I am confident that the entire team will put the customer first in all that we do in Fenix’s next chapter. I hope that Fenix will continue to create new products and drive forward innovation so that clean energy is affordable to all at the last mile.”
About Fenix International
Fenix International’s mission is to transform customers’ quality of life through disruptive innovation in energy and financial services. Fenix has sold over 500,000 solar home systems, bringing clean, reliable power for lights, phones, radios, TVs and more to over 2 million people. Fenix is fully owned subsidiary of ENGIE, one of the world’s largest energy companies and a leader in the move to renewable, decentralised and digital energy. Already the market leader in Uganda and Zambia, Fenix has expanded into new markets – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Mozambique – and continues to work towards providing more affordable, inclusive, and income-generating products. Within ENGIE Africa, Fenix is making universal access to modern energy a reality.
About ENGIE Africa
For over 50 years, ENGIE has been active in many African countries through its energy engineering business and more recently as an independent power producer in South Africa and Morocco with a total capacity of 3,000 MW either in operation or under construction. By 2025, ENGIE wants to be a reference partner in several African countries for power plants, energy services to businesses and decentralized solutions for off-grid customers – communities, companies and households. ENGIE already has more than 2.5 million customers with domestic solar installations and local microgrids,and aims to become one of the viable leaders on the continent’s off-grid service market. For more information, go to www.engie-africa.com.
About ENGIE
Our group is a global reference in low-carbon energy and services. In response to the urgency of climate change, our ambition is to become the world leader in the zero carbon transition “as a service” for our customers, in particular global companies and local authorities. We rely on our key activities (renewable energy, gas, services) to offer competitive turnkey solutions.
With our 160,000 employees, our customers, partners and stakeholders, we are a community of Imaginative Builders, committed every day to more harmonious progress.
Turnover in 2018: 60.6 billion Euros. The Group is listed on the Paris and Brussels stock exchanges (ENGI) and is represented in the main financial indices (CAC 40, DJ Euro Stoxx 50, Euronext 100, FTSE Eurotop 100, MSCI Europe) and non-financial indices (DJSI World, DJSI Europe and Euronext Vigeo Eiris – World 120, Eurozone 120, Europe 120, France 20, CAC 40 Governance).
Fenix press contact:
Allegra Fisher
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ENGIE CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
Tour T1 – 1 place Samuel de Champlain – Faubourg de l’Arche – 92930 Paris La Défense cedex – France
Tel + 33(0)1 44 22 00 00
ENGIE SA WITH CAPITAL OF €2,435,285,011 – RCS NANTERRE 542 107 65.
