The Demon driver

THE brown moccasins strike a jarring note with the blue City suit. The slight limp is also a surprise. 'I've been bitten by a Continental terror insect,' quips Bill Allan, chief executive of telecoms firm Thus, owner of Demon, the UK's first internet company.

But while the bite on the foot may have prevented him from driving his VW Polo to his London office for two days, forcing him to work from home, there was clearly no question of him stopping.

Chief executives are expected to be dedicated and hard working, but Allan is in a class of his own even in this driven species. He simply oozes commitment to his job and the company he runs.

Despite a crowded field of rivals, Allan believes he can take on BT and his former employer Cable & Wireless to claim a bigger share of the £12bn-a-year business telecoms market.

'At the moment, £300m of that belongs to Thus, but we're well positioned to take more,' he says, pointing to recent contracts with Kwik-Fit and radio broadcaster GWR Group.

Despite struggling with heavy debts - a problem faced by most of his rivals - Allan is convinced he has the right skills to keep the company on track.

'During the telecoms bubble, analysts were simply valuing companies on revenue growth, but we've always known that the secret of running a business is simply producing a greater return on your capital than cost,' he says.

Allan is still baffled by the fact that the company was demerged from Scottish Power at 48p a share in 1999, only to soar briefly to 844p in February 2000 before falling back to languish at its current price of 271/ 4p a share. He shakes his head: 'And we have a better business now.'

But he is delighted with the relationship Thus has forged with BSkyB. Thus runs the service that allows Sky viewers to vote on issues in the news by pressing a button on their remote controls and to send mobile phone text messages from the TV.

In future, one viewer could bet against another on whether David Beckham will score from a free kick.

Though Allan is sworn to secrecy about the deal, he is clearly pleased by Sky's disclosure of a large growth in subscribers. 'We are delighted when Sky does well,' he says. 'We hope we'll be finding more ways to help them.' Plucked straight from Greenock High School near Glasgow, Allan was one of 40 high-flying youngsters chosen by Cable & Wireless for a special training programme.

Allan was one who made it to the top by heading C&W's Caribbean unit. He left only when disgraced chief executive Graham Wallace took control of C&W.

Allan is still passionate about the company that nurtured him.

'Sometimes people wonder how important a chief executive is to a company,' he says.

'I don't know that a good chief executive can turn a bad company round, but it is very clear to me that a bad chief executive can destroy a great company.'

Despite a series of regulatory run-ins with BT, Allan is a strong advocate of his rival.

'I think the British telecommunications industry badly needs BT to be a strong champion in Europe,' he says.

'Telecommunications regulation is changing. Most of our rules are now based on the European Union directive on telecoms.

'The UK needs to have a strong voice in Brussels to counter the small group of European firms with large state shareholdings who are not shy about making their views known.'

If passion for business was enough to be heard in Brussels, Allan's voice would be deafening. Sadly, passion is not enough against the Continent's telecoms giants - or man-eating insects.