Freeserve's John Pluthero to become chief executive of beleaguered Energis

The telecoms company Energis yesterday poached John Pluthero, the head of its biggest customer Freeserve, to become its new chief executive while announcing it had beat BT at the post to win a contract worth more than £50m.

Mr Pluthero, who had previously worked at the retail giant Dixons before helping set up the internet service provider Freeserve in 1998, will take up his new role at Energis at the beginning of September.

The 38-year-old, who was made chief executive of Freeserve, now owned by France's Wanadoo, shortly before its 1999 stock market debut, is said to be keen to get involved in a "turnaround" situation that could see him back at the helm of a UK-listed company.

He is understood to be giving up about £2.5m worth of options in Wanadoo although he will get to keep the 100,000 shares he owns in that business.

"It's a wrench for me to leave Freeserve. After all, the business has gone from strength to strength since we became part of the Wanadoo Group and is benefiting from the depth of capabilities that Wanadoo has across Europe," Mr Pluthero said.

David Wickham, who was appointed chief executive of Energis just more than a year ago after previous boss Mike Grabiner retired, will become deputy chief executive.

"This step will enable us to combine the best of existing Energis talent with strong and dynamic new leadership. John Pluthero is one of the most successful young chief executives in Britain. His commercial toughness, customer focus and action orientation will fit well with the new Energis culture," said Archie Norman, Energis' recently appointed chairman and the former chairman of the supermarket chain Asda.

Mr Pluthero will not be a complete stranger to Energis since the telecoms company provides the technical infrastructure behind the Freeserve internet service, making Freeserve Energis' biggest customer. Freeserve yesterday appointed the chief financial officer, Eric Abensur, as interim chief executive while a permanent successor is found.

Energis also announced it had won a multimillion-pound contract from the supermarket giant Tesco to create a private data network connecting its 730 stores. The deal is understood to be worth in excess of £10m a year over a five-year period and the company is thought to have pinched the contract from existing supplier BT.