May 7, 2020: Lampros Bisalas was appointed chief executive officer at lead and lithium battery firm Systems Sunlight on April 29. He takes over from Robby Bourlas, who had been acting as an intermediary CEO since December.

Bourlas continues as CEO of Olympia Group, the owner of Sunlight. He will continue as chairman of the board of directors at Sunlight.

The appointment of Bisalas confirms the new direction Bourlas announced in December.

Sunlight will focus on the commercialization of its lithium battery technology while maintaining its lead battery business, which forms the basis of its profits.

“Bisalas has been integral to the growth of commercial sales and the development of industrial lithium products, which has led to the launch of Sunlight’s first revolutionary series of smart lithium batteries: Li.On Force,” says a company official.

Bisalas joined Sunlight in 2008 as the financial controller for its international subsidiaries and has been the firm’s chief commercial officer since May 2017.

He has also been R&D director, in charge of the technical development and commercialization of industrial lithium batteries for electrical industrial vehicles and energy storage system applications.

Prior to this he was head of new business development for motive power batteries, before becoming a sales director for Sunlight’s motive power battery business. This business accounted for nearly 70% of Sunlight’s annual turnover.

While sales director he increased sales, through a business development plan, by 70% in two years and profitability by 125%.

His responsibilities were increased when he was put in charge of the motive and reserve battery commercial team worldwide, which had annual sales of more than $135 million.

Before joining Sunlight he worked for PwC and Marfin Egnatia Bank.

Bisalas said: “Being asked to step up to CEO is always a career milestone and an honour, but to be trusted to do so in the middle of a global crisis points to Sunlight’s inherent optimism for the future and our determination not to lose momentum.”

Bisalas will also continue as managing director of Sunlight’s European battery assembly plant in Verona, Italy.

• Separately, Panos Germanos, the founder of the Olympia Group which owns Systems Sunlight, at the end of April donated medical and technological equipment worth €2 million ($2.4 million) to the Greek government’s ministries of education and health to help in the fight against Covid-19.