Spotlight on Georges Geha, Chairman and General Manager at ECOSYS
Georges was born in 1963. He got his B.E. Degree in Electrical & Electronics in 1986 from the Lebanese University, and joined Mideast Data Systems – HOLCOM (ITG) - shortly after. He took various responsibilities in the group, from technical, consultancy, to sales management for ICT and Power solutions. He was appointed as General Manager of Midware in 2004, then Chairman – General Manager in January 2008, and was promoted to V.P.-ITG Enterprise (Holding) in 2010. He participated in establishing ECOSYS as an ITG start-up entity for Renewable Energy in 2008. Since January 2016 to present, he’s the Chairman-General Manager of ECOSYS, being one of the leading companies in the region. Georges took the responsibility of expanding ECOSYS in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Please describe your role at Ecosys as well as your industry expertise.
At ECOSYS we’re striving to grow and expand over multiple dimensions. Expanding our team, by attracting new talents, reaching new territories, by establishing new entities per regional countries, and diversifying our expertise by leveraging and strengthening our partnerships, with value business partners. Lebanon is our home country, we expanded to the Gulf region, and to the African market. Mainly we’re promoting our EPC expertise, to implement On-grid, Hybrid and ESS solar projects. We managed to implement land mark projects, starting by the high-end residential, focusing on the Commercial & Industrial sectors, including the Telecom operators, while eying on the Utility scale projects. We are evolving to propose project finance solutions, aiming to become a full-fledged developer, for small & medium size projects. Our PPA journey was initiated, with the private sector as a start.
How did your story in renewables begin, and in your opinion, how much has it changed since then, if at all?
The vision of our group is to adopt and promote new innovative technologies. We initiated ECOSYS as a startup division within an affiliated company of ITG Holding, in 2008. This initiative was launched in the Lebanese market, being difficult and limited in capacity at that time. We had a major role to educate the market. We found it an imminent mission to promote renewable energy at a regional level. We managed to explore multiple African countries, and to target the Asian markets. In particular, we selected challenging countries, where we can add major values, like Afghanistan as a first journey, and Sierra Leone after. Freetown became our base to cover the West African market. Then we embarked into Somalia as a base for East Africa, passing by Cameron, the Gambia, and Ivory Coast. Lately the gulf region, mainly UAE and KSA, became our hot territories to target, and the potential development of IRAQ looks to be promising. We are targeting Greece as well, as an entry point to the European continent.
Can you tell us about your most advanced sector (solution or service) and what sets you apart from other competitors?
We managed to cover the variety of sectors in each market, starting by the Residential projects, where a specialized team is dedicated to cater for the consumer needs, another team was dedicated to cover the Commercial and Industrial projects, and a third division focused on the utility scale EPC projects. We established major partnerships for distribution, as Class A PV Panels, Inverters, and steel structure brands. We evolved to enter the project finance arena, by targeting PPA projects, through partnering with major regional developers and DFIs. As Services, we’re covering end to end solutions, starting by the conceptual design, passing by the project management, the complete implementation, as well as O&M.
We’re agile and flexible, ready to move to a new promising territory, being backed up, by a strong Group, who’s supporting our business plan for growth. We enjoy regional operations, that differentiate us, being backed-up by well selected worldwide leading manufacturers.
What's a recent milestone Ecosys has achieved that you would like to share with us?
Power as a service is the trend, and it’s the future. We managed to promote that at the 3 various levels, the residential, the C&I, and the utility scale to be at a later stage.
We aim to establish distributed energy networks, providing community-level electrification solutions. Once established and stabilized, replicating a successful model to the region is our future plan.
What are your expectations for the MENA region in terms of growth and new opportunities for Ecosys?
MENA is the land of opportunity, there’s plenty of rooms for growth, but there’s no secret to tell that the risk of instability of some countries is a double edge sword, that will excite investors to tap in such open markets, while being enthusiastic to achieve quick wins!
How does EcoSys ensure that its solar projects are sustainable and environmentally friendly?
Power is a necessity for the wellness of the human being, like food. It’s not a luxury. Building and securing solar implementations with a lifetime of 30 years, producing green and clean energy, is our mission. Planning for a proper recycling, to keep on saving the environment, beyond this lifetime, is a promise for the next generations.
ABOUT ECOSYS
ECOSYS, is a systems integrator specialized in the field of renewable energy solutions. We are affiliated to ITG SAL (Holding) that is based in Lebanon, which is part of the HOLCOM international group. www.itgholding.com. ECOSYS is a leading provider of world-class renewable energy & power solutions, for corporate and government institutions. We have a proven track record in the provision of successful Photovoltaic solutions in Lebanon and we expanded to the Gulf, and Africa regions. We do have extensive experience in hybrid power plants, and renewable power sources.