Bajada Lyons Group has appointed Daniel Bajada as Group CEO. His father, Mark Bajada, who founded the group in 1989, stays on as Chairman and Founder.
The appointment is a natural progression for a group that has grown into 23 companies across the energy, manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, hospitality, real estate and innovation sectors, employing more than 200 people. It has manufactured in Malta since 2005 and has installed more than 25 MW of solar capacity.
Where it all began
Mark Bajada left a secure job to import solar water heaters into a market that was not yet buying them, and for the first years he held everything together by himself. “In my case failing was not an option,” he says. “It had to work, full stop.”
Years later he took the business from importing to manufacturing, building the same product in Malta. He was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year Malta in 2022 and is Deputy President of The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry. His view of business has never changed: “Business without risks is no business.”
With Daniel’s appointment to Group CEO, Mark has now also achieved what many founders find hardest: planned his own succession.
The new Group CEO
Daniel Bajada has worked across the group’s sales, marketing and operations functions and has served as General Manager since 2019. “When I say the title is new and the work is not, I mean it literally,” he says.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Management from the University of Malta and is a member of the YPO Malta Chapter.
He credits his father with the ground he now builds on. “My father built the foundations of this business single-handedly, because in those early days there was no other way. Today I get to build on them alongside a brilliant team.”
How he leads
His leadership focuses on both people and numbers. “When I walk into a site, the first thing I read is not the numbers on the wall. It is energy,” he says.
For him, results and behaviour carry equal weight, and strong numbers should never excuse how someone treats the people around them. As CEO, his priority is to give the group the structure to match its size: “structure, governance, and leaders at every level who do not need me or my father in the room to make the right call.”
The next move
The next chapter is international, led by seawater reverse osmosis systems designed, built and programmed in Malta, giving a hotel, a factory or a farm its own water supply.
“Our answer to a market that did not exist was to import. Our answer to a market that had matured was to build it here. The next mission is taking it abroad,” Daniel Bajada says.
His ambition for the name goes beyond any single market. “In ten years, I want Bajada to mean something beyond one industry, one island and one generation.”
Find out more about Bajada Lyons Group at bajadalyonsgroup.com.
About Bajada Lyons Group
Founded by Mark Bajada in 1989, Bajada Lyons Group operates across energy, manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, hospitality, real estate and innovation. It has manufactured in Malta since 2005 and employs more than 200 people. Its businesses include Bajada New Energy, Pro Energy and Lyons Care.
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