IF NICK Horler is a gambling man, he'll have had luck on his side. The new chief executive of ScottishPower has landed what appears to be his dream job.
Iberdrola, ScottishPower's owners made the announcement earlier this week. Previous to taking the Scottish utility's top job, he was managing director of retail at E.On, the Coventry-based energy group formerly known as Powergen.
Iberdrola chairm
an Ignatio Galan praised Horler's "excellent track record". Jose Luis del Valle, who has been in the role since Iberdrola acquired ScottishPower at the end of 2006, was actually filling three roles – operations director for the US & UK, Iberdrola's head of strategy as well as the chief executive role.
The search for the new chief executive began in October of last year – someone with deep experience of the UK energy sector was required.
In essence the job is an important step up for Horler. Duncan Sedgwick, the chief executive of the Energy Retail Association (ERA) believes Horler is the right man for the job.
"He has got an excellent grasp of the issues in the energy sector," says Sedgwick. "Nick is not a backroom boffin. He is very much a front man. He is very good at communication. He works the room, he talks to people. He has a real interest in what other people do and say. This CEO type of role very much plays to the strengths he has."
Yet Horler's gamble was that, when he left E.On, he had no job to go to. He resigned in July of last year at the same time giving up his role as chairman of the ERA.
That meant that Horler, born and raised in Newcastle, was at home in Leamington Spa pursuing the "other opportunities" he had cited as his reasons for leaving for almost six months before Iberdrola came calling.
Perhaps, as Sedgewick says, it was just time to leave. But when Horler left, his former colleague, Tony Cocker, managing director of energy trading, got a big promotion to a Europe-wide role as chief executive of E.On Energy Trading.
Both men joined Powergen at around the same time in 1996. In 2001, Horler was already head of energy trading when Coker succeed him, while Horler moved to be the head of retail. At the time, the German group E.On were in the process of buying Powergen.
It is unclear whether Coker's move to a wider European role within E.On was a snub to Horler, but there was most certainly a limit to his ambition at E.On. So he got out.
"It was time for him to move on from that role," says Sedgewick. "The opportunity to move into something else within E.On perhaps wasn't there.
"Also, and quite rightly, he was looking for the next step up. He didn't want to do a sideways move. He was prepared to try and see whether he could find that."
Horler had moved from Philips, now ConocoPhilips, one of the US's "big five" oil giants. It was his oil experience that was of interest to what was then still called Powergen.
He'd spent 12 years in the oil and gas giant, joining the graduate intake programme in 1984.
Described as a genial character with natural communication skills, he aimed to go into public affairs. Instead he ended up in commercial sales.
It was here he first began to prove his mettle, selling diesel to hard-as-rock Brummie hauliers.
Following the completion of an MBA at Warwick, Philips sent him to work at their headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma where he lived for three years. He became head of sales and marketing before jumping ship to Powergen, which was then still 40 per cent owned by the UK government.
Still harbouring a desire for a job that was public facing, instead he was responsible for setting up its industrial and commercial trading arm.
But five years later, he got his chance to take that gladhanding role as managing director of Powergen's retail division.
It was a time of significant change in the industry, marked by takeovers and consolidation.
German energy group E.On itself acquired Powergen in 2002.
Then in 2003 following the group's £1.6 billion acquisition of the struggling TXU Energi group, many were taken aback by the scale of the cuts in jobs. Horler oversaw over 1,000 redundancies, most in Ipswich.
And the challenges escalated. In 2004 Powergen was fined £700,000 by the regulator for unfairly blocking the transfer of 20,000 customers trying to switch to alternative energy suppliers. E.On was not alone – British Gas, Npower and ScottishPower all got thumped by Ofgem. As a result, Horler had to overhaul the credit management operations . Into 2004 and 2005, continuing price rises and embarrassing problems with the company's outsourced call centre and billing operation in India meant Horler spent a good part of his time fire-fighting. In 2005 more than 500 customers received the wrong bills, which led to the sort of experience that every chief executive dreads – a mea culpa appearance on BBC's consumer programme Watchdog.
"He won't be frightened to get out there in front of people," observes Sedgewick. "He doesn't shirk way from doing tough things."
According to sources in E.On, the German owners are highly demanding and require a constant stream of detailed information. This doesn't appear to be the case with Iberdrola. Insiders there say the Spanish style is more about openness, which may be more suited to Horler's personable style.
"We believe Nick's style of working through his managers particularly via openness and dialogue will be essential in delivering ScottishPower's strategic plan," says a ScottishPower spokesman.
But when it comes to foreign owners, Horler may be amenable but he's no pushover.
"Nick will fight the case for the company. Nick is no soft touch under any circumstances with a European owner," says Sedgwick. "He will make sure he talks to his people. He is an excellent communicator.
It turns out Horler's new job is somewhat of a homecoming. Not only did he marry a Scot, Rona, with whom he has a daughter, 19 and two sons, 17 and 14, he has lived in Scotland before.
After graduating in politics from University of Newcastle upon Tyne (he got a 2.1), he got his first job in Edinburgh. It was an odd one – cleaning the dust off the books at the Royal Observatory library.
A keen golfer and rugby fan, he will likely fit in well into Scotland's corporate scene.
With rising oil prices, times will continue to be tough for the energy utilities industry.
His aims will be to grow the business, focusing on renewable energy – and getting on with ScottishPower's Spanish owners.
"I believe in leveraging the strength of the Iberdrola Group," says Horler. "Building on the expertise and strong customer focus within Scottish Power will be our priority going forward."
BACKGROUNDNEWCASTLE-BORN Nicholas Wenham Horler, 49, graduated from the city's university in 1981.
The following year he joined the National Audit office as an assistant auditor then in 1984 he joined Phillips Petroleum (now ConocoPhillips) as a sales rep, a rising over the years to become sales and marketing director.
In 1996 he joined Powergen as a sales and marketing director and two years later he was appointed managing director of its energy trading division. Around the time of the acquisition of Powergen by German-owned E.On, Horler took over as managing director of Powergen Retail.
Then this week, Iberdrola's chairman and chief executive, Ignacio Galán, announced the creation of a new ScottishPower executive committee of the board including José Luis del Valle as vice-chairman and the appointment of Horler as the new chief executive.
The full article contains 1299 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
