Mantas Burokas has been appointed as the new CEO of Vilnius Combined Heat and Power Plant (Vilnius CHP), taking up the position on 24 February after a successful selection procedure.

A lawyer by training, Burokas had spent the previous eighteen months as Director of the Strategy and Management Department at LTG Infra. He brings extensive energy sector experience, having headed Vilniaus Šilumos Tinklai from 2015 to 2019, and held senior positions at Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant and Klaipėdos Nafta before that.

Vilnius CHP Management Board Chairman Dominykas Tučkus said he is delighted that Burokas has taken on this challenge, joining the team while construction is still underway and just before the commissioning of the unit that uses municipal waste to generate energy — he expressed confidence that Burokas's experience will help successfully complete construction and smoothly launch commercial operations.

The CEO selection was announced at the end of November 2020, with 49 candidates expressing interest in leading the plant, which then had nearly 90 employees; the final stage included two candidates, with Burokas selected as the best. He said he is returning to the energy sector where he spent more than a decade, and to Ignitis Group, where he began his professional career.

Vilnius CHP will be among the most modern combined heat and power plants of its type in Europe. Once fully implemented, the project is expected to have a total power generation capacity of just over 90 MW and a thermal capacity of approximately 230 MW, generating energy from non-hazardous municipal waste and biofuels and incinerating around 160,000 tonnes of waste per year. The project is financed by the European Union's Cohesion Fund.