John Pluthero revolutionised the UK's net scene

The founder and driving force of UK internet pioneer Freeserve, John Pluthero, has quit the company to join troubled telecoms firm Energis.

Mr Pluthero will be the chief executive of Energis, and was lured to the company by its new chairman Archie Norman, the Tory politician and former boss of retail giant Asda.

"It's a wrench for me to leave Freeserve", Mr Pluthero said, who set up the internet service provider as a subsidiary of electronics retailer Dixons.

Freeserve revolutionised the British internet scene by charging its members no monthly fees. Instead it financed itself by taking a small cut of the phone fees occurred when users dialled in to Freeserve's servers.

One-and-a-half years ago, Dixons sold its stake in Freeserve to the French internet giant Wanadoo for �1.65bn, which made the combined company Europe's third largest internet provider.

Turnaround challenge

The 38-year-old Mr Pluthero will have a massive task at his hands as he tries to turn around Energis.

Energis is the telecoms business spun off from National Grid, which developed a Europe-wide fibre-optic cable network.

Once valued at close to �14bn, the company has been hit hard by the global slump in the telecoms industry.

Investors dumped the stock, and the share price collapsed to less than one penny - down from a peak of just under �8..

Saddled with huge debts, Energis' UK business was sold last week to a firm controlled by its 16 creditor banks.

In return, they agreed to support a restructuring of Energis with some �150m in cash and new equity.

Mr Pluthero will join Energis in September, shunting aside current chief executive David Wickham, who will become Mr Pluthero's deputy.

An Energis spokesman said of Mr Pluthero that he knew "the business well and it's quite flattering on the back of that that he's decided to take this position".