John Pluthero (born 1964) is a British businessman. Born in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1964, Pluthero was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School and graduated with a First in Economics from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. On graduating he joined the accounting firm

Coopers and Lybrand PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

and qualified as a Chartered Accountant three years later. He later worked for P&O and served as director of the

Chelsea Harbour Chelsea Harbour is a contemporary mixed-use development in West London, situated in its Sands End area, along Chelsea Creek, the historic southeastern boundary of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham with the southwestern boundary of the ...

development."Meet Mr. Freeserve"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 30 June 1999. Retrieved 23 April 2020. His held senior positions at Dixons, Bass PLC and was the founder of

Freeserve Freeserve was a British Internet service provider, which was founded in 1998. At its height, the company became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, before merging into the Wanadoo group in 2000. It then became a subsidiary of France Telecom, ...

, Europe's first dotcom IPO, listing on the London Stock Exchange a year after start-up at a valuation of £1.5Bn. After the sale of Freeserve to France Telecom he was asked by Archie Norman and a consortium of banks to lead the turnaround of

Energis Energis Communications Limited, briefly Telecom Electric, or more usually just Energis, was a 'technology driven communications company' based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but subse ...

after its financial collapse. In 2006, after 4 years the business was sold to Cable and Wireless with restored growth, profitability and cashflow. On acquisition Pluthero became the CEO of Cable and Wireless's non-incumbent businesses to perform a similar turnaround to those businesses. Over four years profitability had improved by >£500m and cashflow by >£700m. In 2011 Pluthero became Group CEO to prepare the businesses for demerger of the Cable and Wireless group. On demerger Pluthero became the Chairman of Cable and Wireless Worldwide. Pluthero has subsequently advised on several start-ups in the tech space and has held chairman and Board positions at Essensys, CODE Investing and MyAppConverter. He founded an Art charity, Abstract Critical, with renowned British sculptor Robin Greenwood.

References

Living people 1964 births People educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School {{UK-business-bio-1960s-stub