READING, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 5, 2024--
EnerSys (NYSE: ENS), the global leader in stored energy solutions for industrial applications, today announced the appointment of Keith Fisher as President, Energy Systems Global effective January 2, 2025. Mr. Fisher will succeed and report to Shawn O’Connell, who was recently promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer.
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Mr. Fisher, with a distinguished 27-year career, brings a proven track record of driving operational and financial excellence across multiple industries. His leadership in global strategic execution and services transformation has positioned him as an ideal candidate to lead EnerSys’ Energy Systems Global business.
Prior to joining EnerSys, Mr. Fisher served as President of Honeywell Intelligrated, where he led significant growth in services and implemented rigorous project management processes and tools leading to meaningful margin expansion and improved customer satisfaction. His tenure at Honeywell also included Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell Building Technologies Global Services where he spearheaded global service modernization initiatives, resulting in both revenue and operating income growth, through digitization and standardized processes. He has effectively led multi-billion-dollar businesses across several strategic business units, demonstrating his capacity to scale and optimize operations in various industry cycles and market conditions.
EnerSys President and Chief Operating Officer Shawn O’Connell remarked, “Keith’s extensive background in service transformation and global operational excellence will be instrumental in driving growth across our Energy Systems line of business. His experience managing 42 international sites and executing complex global strategies in multi-billion-dollar businesses positions him uniquely to lead our team into the next phase of profitable growth and service excellence.”
“I am honored to join EnerSys and to lead the Energy Systems line of business,” said Mr. Fisher. “EnerSys is at the forefront of transforming energy storage and power solutions worldwide, and I look forward to building upon its strong foundation of innovation, customer focus, and operational excellence.”
About EnerSys
EnerSys is the global leader in stored energy solutions for industrial applications and designs, manufactures, and distributes energy systems solutions and motive power batteries, specialty batteries, battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories and outdoor equipment enclosure solutions to customers worldwide. The company goes to market through four lines of business: Energy Systems, Motive Power, Specialty and New Ventures. Energy Systems, which combine power conversion, power distribution, energy storage, and enclosures, are used in the telecommunication, broadband and utility industries, uninterruptible power supplies, and numerous applications requiring stored energy solutions. Motive power batteries and chargers are utilized in electric forklift trucks and other industrial electric powered vehicles. Specialty batteries are used in aerospace and defense applications, portable power solutions for soldiers in the field, large over-the-road trucks, premium automotive, medical and security systems applications. New Ventures provides energy storage and management systems for various applications including demand charge reduction, utility back-up power, and dynamic fast charging for electric vehicles. EnerSys also provides aftermarket and customer support services to its customers in over 100 countries through its sales and manufacturing locations around the world. To learn more about EnerSys please visit https://www.enersys.com/en/
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
EnerSys is making this statement in order to satisfy the “Safe Harbor” provision contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any of the statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may include forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. A forward-looking statement predicts, projects, or uses future events as expectations or possibilities. Forward-looking statements may be based on expectations concerning future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to operations and the economic environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those matters expressed in or implied by forward-looking statements, please see our risk factors as disclosed in the “Risk Factors” section of our annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, even if subsequently made available by EnerSys on its website or otherwise. EnerSys does not undertake any obligation to update or revise these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.
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HOMS, Syria (AP) — Syria's new security forces checked IDs and searched cars in the central city of Homs on Thursday, a day after protests by members of the Alawite minority erupted in gunfire and stirred fears that the country's fragile peace could break down.
A tense calm prevailed after checkpoints were set up throughout the country’s third-largest city, which has a mixed population of Sunni and Shia Muslims, Alawites and Christians.
The security forces are controlled by the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led the charge that unseated former President Bashar Assad. On the road from Damascus, security teams at the checkpoints waved cars through perfunctorily, but in Homs they checked IDs and opened the trunk of each car to look for weapons.
Armed men blocked the road leading to the square formerly named for Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, where one foot was all that remained of a statue of him that once stood in the center of the traffic roundabout. The square has been renamed Freedom Square, although some call it “the donkey’s square,” referring to Assad.
Protests erupted there Wednesday among Alawites — the minority sect to which the Assad family belongs — after a video circulated showing an Alawite shrine in Aleppo being vandalized. Government officials later issued a statement saying that the video was old.
Wednesday's protests began peacefully, said Alaa Amran, the newly installed police chief of Homs, but then “some suspicious parties ... related to the former regime opened fire on both security forces and demonstrators, and there were some injuries.”
Security forces flooded the area and imposed a curfew to restore order, he said.
Mohammad Ali Hajj Younes, an electrician who has a shop next to the square, said the people who instigated the violence are “the same shabiha who used to come into my shop and rob me, and I couldn’t say anything,” using a term referring to pro-Assad militia members.
The protests were part of a larger flare-up of violence Wednesday. Pro-Assad militants attacked members of the new security forces near the coastal town of Tartous, killing 14 and wounding 10, according to the Interior Ministry in the transitional government.
In response, security forces launched raids “pursuing the remnants of Assad's militias," state media reported. The state-run SANA news agency reported late Thursday that clashes broke out in the village of Balqasa in a rural part of Homs province.
The unrest left many people fearful that the relatively peaceful conditions that have prevailed since Assad's fall could break down into sectarian fighting as the country begins to recover following nearly 14 years of civil war.
Those who instigated the violence "are supported by parties that may be external that want strife for Syria to return it to square one, the square of sectarianism,” Amran said.
Ahmad al-Bayyaa, an Alawite in the al-Zahra neighborhood of Homs, said he and his wife and three daughters fled to the coastal town of Baniyas when insurgent forces first arrived, but came back a day later after hearing from neighbors that the fighters had not harmed civilians.
“We had been given the idea that there would be slaughter and killing based on our identity, and nothing like that happened,” he said. “We came back, and nobody asked to see my ID from the coast to Homs.”
Before Assad's fall, al-Bayyaa said, he spent 10 years in hiding to avoid a call-up for reserve army service and was afraid to cross a checkpoint in his own neighborhood. After the former Syrian army collapsed in the face of the HTS-led advance, residents of the neighborhood set up a fruit and vegetable stand on an abandoned tank in a gesture of mockery.
In the predominantly Christian Homs suburb of Fayrouzeh, a group of teenage girls took each other’s pictures next to a giant cutout of Santa Claus with a Christmas tree in the town square.
Residents of the area said their initial fears that the country's new rulers would target religious minorities were quickly laid to rest. HTS was once aligned with al-Qaida, but its leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has cut ties with the group and since coming to power has preached religious coexistence.
“We had a very beautiful holiday even though there was some anxiety before it,” said Fayrouzeh resident Sarab Kashi. “The guys from HTS volunteered and stood as guards on the door of the churches.”
The city’s Sunni majority, meanwhile, welcomed the new administration. Many of the young men now guarding its streets were originally from Homs and were evacuated to opposition-held Idlib when Assad’s forces solidified control of their areas years ago.
“These guys were young boys when they took them in the green buses, and they were crying,” said Wardeh Mohammed, gesturing at a group of young men manning a checkpoint in front of a grocery store on one of the city's main streets. “Thank God, they have come back as young men, as fighters who made us proud.”
The country’s new rulers have scrambled to impose order after the initial anarchic days after Assad’s fall.
The former police and security forces — widely known for corruption — were disbanded, and members of the police force in what was formerly a regional government headed by HTS in the opposition-held northwest were deployed to other areas.
Amran, the police chief, said recruitment efforts are underway to build up the forces, but he acknowledged that the current numbers are “not sufficient to control security 100%.” The new security forces have also struggled to stem the proliferation of weapons in the hands of civilians or non-state groups, he said.
Al-Sharaa has said that the country's patchwork of former rebel groups will come together in one unified national army, but it remained unclear exactly how that would happen or whether the groups can avoid infighting.
In Homs, it was clear that several different armed factions patrolled the streets, in a sometimes uneasy coordination. An HTS official hastened to explain that a handful of armed men wearing patches with an insignia sometimes associated with the Islamic State were not members of his group.
Many feared another flare-up of violence.
“From what happened yesterday, it’s clear that some people want to take the country backwards” to the worst days of the country’s civil war, al-Bayya said, “and no one wants to go back 14 years.”
A women looks at second hand clothes displayed on a street for sale near an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A woman walks on a street in an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A young woman poses for a picture with a Christmas decoration on a square in a Christian neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An elderly man transports a plastic bag with bread as he rides his bicycle on a street in an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Syrian boy stands under a giant portrait of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad painted over with the colors of the "revolutionary" flag, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A damaged image depicting the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, is seen on a window of the Police headquarters in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Boys play soccer on a street in an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government patrols an area near to a security checkpoint in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A man sits with a child next to a damaged image depicting the ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad, at the entrance of the Police headquarters, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Children on the top of an ousted Syrian government forces tank that was left on a street in an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A man looks at fruits and vegetables displayed for sale in front of an ousted Syrian government forces tank that was left on a street in an Alawite neighbourhood, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government stands on guard at a security checkpoint, in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government stands on guard at a security checkpoint in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government checks the ID of a driver at a security checkpoint in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
