Saturday profile: Rupert Soames

His luck is not by dint of his privileged background. A grandson of Winston Churchill, he is also the son of Baron Soames, heir to a brewing fortune and a former Tory cabinet minister. He is married to a renowned society beauty, Camilla Dunne. His young daughter, briefly and sadly, had the late Princess Diana as a godmother.

Soames' late father was also the last governor of Rhodesia before its first general election in 1980 saw the freedom fighter Robert Mugabe become the first president of Zimbabwe, as it became known. Interestingly, Africa figures strongly in Soames' business installing diesel and gas powered generators in developing countries. As Africa is one of the largest regions for Aggreko, Soames travels regularly to far-flung places such as Angola, Kenya and Tanzania to meet governors and heads of state, where Aggreko generators meet a growing demand for electricity to power lights, fridges and factories.

In fact, this is part of the reason why he is so seemingly lucky. In the five years since he took the top job at Aggreko, following the tragic death of his predecessor Philip Harrowman in a car accident, the market has changed dramatically. No-one predicted how demand in the third world for electricity would grow in the past ten years – certainly not the world's power station builders: the GEs, the Seimens or the Alstoms. As it turns out, they will be rather busy, perhaps even flat out, over the next decade replacing the 25 per cent of power stations in the developed world that are reaching the end of their useful life. In the meantime, if you are a poor African, Indonesian or South American state or country, you call Aggreko. Although Soames is often at pains to point out the group's systems are meant only as a temporary solution, it is starting to become apparent a lot of developing world countries are hanging on to their generators. And at a cost.

Most of the Scots firm's business is what you might expect it to be – it provides temporary power or refrigeration for events around the world, largely based in the US, Europe and the Far East. You'll find Aggreko generators at Glastonbury and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while they also respond to floods and hurricanes such as those that hit New Orleans in 2005.

But the real growth is in the developing world, and while this accounts for only 30 per cent of the group's 700 million turnover, business is booming. It also accounts for 40 per cent of its 125m or so profits.

Another spot of luck for Soames was Aggreko's 107m takeover of its greatest rival, the temporary power division of General Electric. For many, it looked like a coup for a comparatively obscure Glasgow-based business to take on one of the world's biggest companies. Rather, it was a sign of a giant throwing in the towel. Over the decades, since Aggreko was owned by logistics group Christian Salvesen, the smaller, nimbler company had build an unrivalled network of depots in over 100 countries which it still operates today. Unable to make inroads, the mighty GE capitulated.

Yet, according to Aggreko finance director Angus Cockburn, Soames' success was not a result of luck – and not at all to do with Soames' famous relations – but more to do with talent and a lot of hard work. Since Soames joined the business, Cockburn points out, profits have trebled and the share price had gone from 120p to around the 650p mark. And if Soames didn't actually predict the demand for energy in the developing world, he sensed it and made sure Aggreko was there to meet it.

Cockburn remembers recruiting Soames back in 2003. An initial two-hour interview scheduled for the afternoon continued over supper then late into the night.

"The man obviously knew more about Aggreko than any human being on the planet," recalls Cockburn. "The preparation he'd done and the knowledge and ideas were incredible.

"He came in with no industry experience but brought a set of ideas that turned the business on its head in many ways.

"He did a very good job putting a strategy together and getting buy-in from an initially sceptical management team."

That Soames is a gifted communicator there is no doubt. Although his amiable discourse is often peppered with public school jargon, which can sometimes make him sound more like a club-mate of Bertie Wooster, most agree he has inherited a certain facility for oration.

Geoff Allum, a support services analyst with KBC Peel Hunt, can see Soames' grandfather in him. "He is probably the best presenter I have of all the people I talk to. I don't know how hard he has to work at it but he comes over bloody good."

Cockburn, who works closely with him, says that his talent may be innate, but he also works hard at it. Rather Soames makes it look easy.

"He has an ability to transfix his audience," Cockburn enthuses. "It is always off-the-cuff but the amount of preparation that he puts in to be able to do it off-the-cuff is phenomenal. He is always very well prepared and gives the appearance of being able to do it on the hoof."

Soames admits he is unusual in the direction his career took both among his family members and his Oxford peer group. Soames is the youngest of five children. His eldest brother Nicholas, a Tory MP, clearly took on the family business, while his other brother, Jeremy, went into merchant banking. One sister, Emma, is a high-profile journalist.

In a typical self-deprecating way, Soames said the ones who went into the City and advertising were merely cleverer than he was while he somehow landed up on the shop floor at Marconi, in Rochester. Part of the mighty General Electric Company (GEC) under Arnold, later Lord, Weinstock, the company was then the UK's largest employer.

As one of the UK's premier industrialists, there were few better mentors for Soames. He left GEC when Weinstock retired and joined listed software company Misys. He lived through the turbulent dotcom boom as head of its banking and securities division, but fell out with the company's founder, Kevin Lomax, over the direction the company should take. As Soames puts it, Lomax "exercised his right to dispense with my services". He left in 2002. It is a testament, perhaps, to Soames bonhomie that the two remain friends.

On 1 July, Soames celebrates five years at Aggreko. He clearly still relishes his job. He has even been known, at port-fuelled dinners at Mansion House in the heart of the City, to exhort his Oxbridge educated fellows to down their pens and take up the cudgels of industry. So far he hasn't had many takers, but for Soames he feels he is not just working in industry, he is doing something important.

"We take electricity and power for granted, but it is absolutely not taken for granted in other countries. Very often we are taking people out of messes caused by poor infrastructure or flood or tempest – that makes all of us feel good."

BACKGROUND

IN 1981, the Honourable Rupert Christopher Soames, 49, graduated from Oxford (he got a Third). He was also president of the Oxford Union.

Although he ran a DJ business while he was a student, his career started at General Electric Company in 1981. He rose through the ranks, spending his last four years there responsible for the UK, African and Asian operations of weighing division Avery Berkel. Soames left GEC in 1996 to join software company Misys until a parting of the ways in 2002. He became chief executive of Glasgow-headquartered Aggreko in 2003.

Soames is married to Camilla (Millie) and has three children, a daughter and two sons.

Aggreko, which has its headquarters in Glasgow, also manufacturers and assembles diesel-powered generators at a factory in Dumbarton, which are then airlifted to various world locations. Monday will see Aggreko release a trading update to the City.