John Pluthero - the founder of Freeserve - has quit the UK's largest ISP to take the top job at struggling alternative telco Energis. He will join new chairman, Archie Norman, who led the successful refinancing of the Energis business last week.

Pluthero takes up his new post as chief exec at Energis in September. He will be replaced at Freeserve by CFO Eric Abensur until a permanent replacement can be found.

Pluthero, 38, helped revolutionise mass-market Net access in the UK by scrapping the need for people to pay a subscription for the service. Instead, he generated revenue by taking a slice of the telecom revenue from each Internet call that was made.

With the backing of High Street electrical retailer Dixons, Freeserve grew at a massive pace bringing affordable Net access to millions of people.

Talking about his move Pluthero said that it was a "wrench for me to leave Freeserve".

Said Energis chairman Archie Norman: "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."

Of course, Pluthero will be no stranger to Energis, since the telco provides much of the telecoms infrastructure for the ISP. ®