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utILIty WeeK | 27th February - 5th March 2015 | 7 Interview A nthony Ainsworth's CV is intriguingly unique and, without doubt, a conspicuously alien feature in the UK's energy supply industry. It's perhaps fitting, therefore, that he talks to me about the road that led him to Eon at the poolside of a smart Miami hotel, the venue for a soware conference where Ainsworth is speaking about customer engage- ment and rebuilding trust (see page 26). It's a world away from the hubbub accompanying the first findings from the CMA inquiry into the embattled UK energy market. Here, the locals are cowering inside on what is a cold day for Florida. But it's sunny, we Brits are made of sterner stuff, and I'm keen to hear a particular story from Ainsworth's eclectic career. Rumour has it he once spent a day as Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodyguard. He grins and nods confirmation. "It was while I was working for Rank Group in the late 1990s," Ainsworth explains. Rank is the gaming and entertainment busi- ness that part-owns Universal Studios' theme parks in the US as well as the Hard Rock Cafe franchise. "There was a groundbreaking ceremony for a new investment in Japan and Arnold Schwarzenegger was the guest of honour. I was the only other person who spoke English on site so I was elected his chaperone for the day. It was great. I wanted to have my picture taken with him at the end but they wouldn't let me because I'm about four inches taller and he'd been paid a fortune to be there and be larger than life." Ainsworth says that experience was "part of another world" – a career that took him to work at locations including the Bahamas, New Jersey and China to name but a few. And now he's a director at Eon, based in Cov- entry, and helping the UK's second largest electricity generator and third largest supplier by customer num- bers claw back a position of trust with UK consumers. It's hard to believe given what went before, but Ainsworth insists this position is "exciting". Perhaps an intervening decade in the retail banking and car hire industries has brought perspective. Justifying his enthusiasm, Ainsworth describes how he was inspired by the vision of Eon UK chief executive Tony Cocker when he took up his post three years ago during a big shake-up of senior management. "Tony expressed a real will to change the business; to change the perception of Eon in the UK and even to change the perception of the whole of the energy indus- try," recalls Ainsworth. "That really appealed to me. I wanted the challenge of personally making a difference and of being part of a business which made a difference to an industry. They were clearly looking for people from outside to bring in fresh ideas, so it was a good match." Ainsworth joined Eon in early 2012 and certainly got the challenge he was looking for. The business was not in a good place. Customer churn was high and its net promoter score (NPS) was minus 30. Why were things so bad? Ainsworth talks in generic terms about an industry that had "lost its way", forget- ting what it was really there for and becoming too com- plicated. It's hard to get him to talk about any specific faults in Eon's strategy or processes. But he's clearer on the actions that have been taken to put things right. First things first, there was a need to get to grips with the reality of customer concerns and the way in which Eon was perceived. When Ainsworth joined Eon, there