Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British entrepreneur, media personality and political advisor. From humble origins in the
East End of LondonThe East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
, Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £770m (US$1.14 billion), and was ranked 89th in the
Sunday Times Rich List 2011The Sunday Times Rich List 2011 is the 23rd annual survey of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, published by The Sunday Times on 8 May 2011...
. In 2007, he sold
AmstradAmstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
, one of his large business ventures.
Sugar is also notable for his time as chairman of
Tottenham HotspurTottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
from 1991 to 2001. He starred in the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV series The Apprentice, which has run to seven series. It has been broadcast annually since 2005 and is based upon the popular
U.S. television show of the same nameThe Apprentice is an American reality television show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC...
, featuring entrepreneur
Donald TrumpDonald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
.
Early life
Sugar was born in
HackneyThe London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, east London. He is the youngest of four children of Fay (1907–1994) and Nathan (1907–1987) Sugar. His father was a tailor in the East End garment industry.
When Sugar was a child, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly hair, he was nicknamed "Mopsy". He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in
Upper ClaptonUpper Clapton is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bounded by the Hackney districts of Stamford Hill to the west, Lower Clapton and Lea Bridge to the south and the Haringey district of South Tottenham to the north...
, Hackney, and made extra money by boiling and selling beetroot from a stall. In The Apprentice (2009), Sugar revealed "I was in the
Jewish Lads BrigadeThe Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade is a national Jewish youth organisation.The JLGB is the UK's oldest Jewish youth movement. It was founded in 1895 as the Jewish Lads' Brigade by Colonel Albert E. W. Goldsmid, a senior army officer, to provide an interest for children of the many poor immigrant...
, Stamford Hill Division, Trainee Bugler, but it didn't make me sell computers!" After leaving school at 16, he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education. He started selling car aerials and electrical goods out of a van he had bought with his savings of £100.
Personal life
Sugar met his wife Ann (née Simons) when he was 17. They married on 28 April 1968; they have two sons and a daughter. Sugar and his wife live in Chigwell, Essex. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on 11 May 2008 in a party at their home, where
Bruce ForsythSir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...
was the
compereA Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
,
Jackie MasonJackie Mason is an American stand-up comedian and movie actor.-Early life:Born Yacov Moshe Maza in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City....
the comic and
Sir Elton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
played a set. His niece through marriage is actress
Rita Simons, best known for playing
Roxy MitchellRoxanne Lizette "Roxy" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, portrayed by Rita Simons. Roxy arrived in Walford with her sister Ronnie on 24 July 2007 and decided to move permanently to Walford from Ibiza where they ran a bar together. Roxy is the younger of the two...
on the popular UK soap opera
EastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
.
A collector of classic
Rolls RoyceThis a list of Rolls-Royce motor cars and includes vehicles produced by:*Rolls-Royce Limited *Rolls-Royce Motors , which was owned by Vickers between 1980 and 1998, and after that by Volkswagen...
and Bentley motor cars, Sugar owns a
Rolls Royce PhantomThe Rolls-Royce Phantom is a saloon automobile made in England by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, a BMW subsidiary. It was launched in 2003 and is the first model introduced during the BMW era. The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, and the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé, are both based on the 2003 Phantom...
with the number plate AMS1, which appears during all episodes of The Apprentice. A qualified pilot with 30 years experience, Sugar owns a
CirrusThe Cirrus Aircraft Corporation is an aircraft manufacturer that was founded in 1984 by Alan and Dale Klapmeier to produce the VK-30 kit aircraft....
SR20The Cirrus Design SR20 is a piston engine composite monoplane that seats four. The SR20 is noted for being the first production general aviation aircraft equipped with a parachute designed to lower the aircraft safely to the ground after loss of control or structural failure.-Design and...
four-seat aircraft, based at Stapleford Airfield. During an attempted landing at Manchester City Airfield on 5 July 2008, Sugar suffered a crash in this aircraft due to wet soft field conditions. No injuries were sustained, although Sugar was said to be "very shaken". He is a fan of and the former owner of Tottenham Hotspur.
In February 2009, it was reported that Sugar had initiated legal proceedings against
The SunThe Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper following a report that he had been named on a "hit list" of British Jews in response to
Israel's ongoing military operation in GazaThe Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
. The threats are alleged to have been made by
Glen JenveyGlen Jenvey, born April 9, 1965, is a British journalist who states that he has devoted much of his time to infiltrating, undermining and exposing radical Islamic groups...
, the source of the original story in The Sun, who posted to a Muslim website under a false identity.
Political involvement
In February 2009, the
Evening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
journalist
Andrew GilliganAndrew Paul Gilligan is a British journalist best known for a 2003 report on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme in which he said a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction had been 'sexed up', a claim that ultimately led to a public inquiry that criticised Gilligan...
claimed that Sugar had been approached to be the
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
candidate for
Mayor of LondonThe Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
in 2012. Sugar subsequently ridiculed the claim in an interview with
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. But, during Prime Minister
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
's cabinet reshuffle on 5 June 2009, the BBC reported that Sugar would become Lord Sugar and had been offered a job as the government's "
Enterprise ChampionEnterprise Tsar was a position in the UK Government responsible for promoting entrepreneurship and advising the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The role was held by Alan Sugar, the well-known entrepreneur and star of BBC One's The Apprentice, who was also ennobled as Lord Sugar....
". On 7 June 2009 Sugar sought to clarify the non-political nature of his appointment. He stated that he would not be joining the government, that the appointment was politically neutral, and that all he wanted to do was help businesses and entrepreneurs.
Amstrad
Sugar founded the electronics company Amstrad in 1968, the name being an acronym of his initials – Alan Michael Sugar Trading. Despite this acronym, Sugar also trades under other business names, see below. By 1970, the first manufacturing venture was underway. He achieved lower production prices by using injection moulding plastics for hi-fi turntable covers, severely undercutting competitors who used vacuum-forming processes. Manufacturing capacity was soon expanded to include the production of audio amplifiers and tuners.
In 1980, Amstrad was listed on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and during the 1980s, Amstrad doubled its profit and market value every year. By 1984, recognising the opportunity of the
home computerHome computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
era, Amstrad launched an
8-bitThe first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
machine Amstrad CPC 464. Although the CPC range were attractive machines, with
CP/MCP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
-capability and a good
BASICBASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
interpreter, it had to compete with its arch-rivals, the more graphically complex
Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and the popular Sinclair
ZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, not to mention the highly sophisticated
BBC MicroThe BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
. Despite this, three million units were sold worldwide with a long production life of eight years. It inspired an East German version with Russian Z80 clone processors. In 1985, Sugar had another major breakthrough with the launch of the
Amstrad PCWThe Amstrad PCW series was a range of personal computers produced by British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider in the early years of the series' life. When it was launched, the cost of a PCW system was...
8256
word processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
which, although made of cheap components, retailed at over £300. In 1986 Amstrad bought the rights to the Sinclair computer product line and produced two more ZX Spectrum models in a similar style to their CPC machines. It also developed the PC1512, a PC compatible computer, which became quite popular in Europe and was the first in a line of Amstrad PCs.
At its peak, Amstrad achieved a stock market value of £1.2 billion, but the 1990s proved a difficult time for the company. The launch of a range of business PCs was marred by unreliable hard disks (supplied by
SeagateSeagate Technology is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives. Incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology, Seagate is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive offices in Scotts Valley, California, United States.-1970s:On November 1, 1979...
), which occasioned a high level of customer dissatisfaction and damage to Amstrad's reputation in the personal computer market, from which it never recovered. Subsequently, Amstrad sued Seagate for $100 million for lost revenue. In the early 1990s, Amstrad began to focus on portable computers rather than desktop computers. Also, in 1990, Amstrad entered the gaming market with the
Amstrad GX4000The GX4000 was Amstrad's short-lived attempt to enter the games console market. The console was released in Europe in 1990 and was based on the still-popular CPC technology. The GX4000 was actually a modified CPC 6128 Plus computer...
, but it was a commercial failure, largely because there was only a poor selection of games available on it. Additionally, it was immediately superseded by the Japanese consoles: Mega Drive and
Super NintendoThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, which both had a much more comprehensive selection of games. In 1993, Amstrad released the
PenPadThe term PenPad was used as a product name for a number of Pen computing products by different companies in the 1980s and 1990s. The earliest was the Penpad series of products by Pencept, such as the PenPad M200 handwriting terminal, and the PenPad M320 handwriting/gesture recognition tablet for...
, a
PDAA personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
, and bought into
BetacomFounded in 1966, Betacom is an electronics company specialising in audio and visual products. In 1992 Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad purchased a 29.9% stake in the company from Canon Street Investments PLC. A rights issue and subscription increased Amstrad's shareholding in Betacom to 71.3%...
and
ViglenViglen Ltd provides IT products and services, including storage systems, servers, workstations and data/voice communications equipment and services.- History :...
, so as to focus more on telecommunications rather than computers. Amstrad released the first of its combined telephony and e-mail devices, called the e-m@iler, followed by the e-m@ilerplus in 2002, neither of which is sold extensively.
On 31 July 2007 it was announced that broadcaster BSkyB had agreed to buy Amstrad for about £125m. At the time of the takeover, Sugar commented that he wished to play a part in the business, saying: "I turn 60 this year and I have had 40 years of hustling in the business, but now I have to start thinking about my team of loyal staff, many of whom have been with me for many years." On 2 July 2008 it was announced that Sugar was standing down from Amstrad as chairman, to focus solely on his other business interests.
Tottenham Hotspur
After a take-over battle with
Robert MaxwellIan Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...
, Sugar teamed up with
Terry VenablesTerence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...
and bought Tottenham Hotspur football club in June 1991. Although Sugar's initial investment helped ease the financial troubles the club was suffering at the time, his treatment of Tottenham as a business venture and not a footballing one made him an unpopular figure among the Spurs fans. In Sugar's nine years as chairman, Tottenham Hotspur did not finish in the top six in the league and won just one trophy, the 1999
Football League CupThe Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
.
Sugar sacked Venables the night before the
1993 FA Cup FinalThe 1993 FA Cup Final was contested by Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley. The original match, played on 15 May 1993 finished 1–1, with Arsenal winning the replay on 20 May; 2–1 after extra-time....
, a decision which led to Venables' appealing to the high courts for reinstatement. A legal battle for the club took place over the summer, which Sugar won (see
Re Tottenham Hotspur plcRe Tottenham Hotspur plc [1994] 1 BCLC 655 is a UK company law case concerning unfair prejudice under s 459 of the Companies Act 1985, now s 994 Companies Act 2006.-Facts:...
[1994] 1 BCLC 655). The decision to sack Venables angered many of Tottenham fans, and Sugar later said, "I felt as though I'd killed
BambiBambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
."
In 1992 he was the only representative of the then big five (
ArsenalArsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
,
EvertonEverton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
,
LiverpoolLiverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
,
Manchester UnitedManchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
and Tottenham) who voted in favour of
SKYBritish Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
's bid for Premier League television rights. The other four voted in favour of
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's bid, as it had promised to show big five games more often. At the time of the vote, Sugar's company Amstrad was developing satellite dishes for SKY.
In 1994 Sugar financed the transfers of three stars of the
1994 World CupThe 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...
:
Ilie DumitrescuIlie Dumitrescu is a former Romanian football player and current coach, he last managed Steaua Bucureşti. A tricky forward, he shot to fame when his frontline partnership with Gheorghe Hagi and Florin Răducioiu led the Romania national football team to the 1994 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal,...
, Gica Popescu, and most notably
Jürgen KlinsmannJürgen Klinsmann is a German football manager and former player who is currently the coach of the United States Men's National Team. As a player, Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the German one that...
, who had an excellent first season in English football, being named Footballer of the Year. Because Spurs had not qualified for the UEFA Cup, Klinsmann decided to invoke an opt-out clause in his contract and left for Bayern Munich in the summer of 1995. Sugar appeared on television holding the last shirt Klinsmann wore for Spurs and said he wouldn't wash his car with it. He called foreigners coming into the Premier League at high wages as "Carlos Kickaballs". Klinsmann retaliated by calling Sugar "a man without honour", and said:
"He only ever talks about money. He never talks about the game. I would say there is a big question mark over whether Sugar's heart is in the club and in football. The big question is what he likes more, the business or the football?" Klinsmann re-signed for Tottenham on loan in December 1997.
In October 1998, former Tottenham striker
Teddy SheringhamEdward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham MBE is a retired English footballer, and the father of footballer Charlie Sheringham. Sheringham played as a striker, and had a successful career at the club level, winning almost every domestic honour available with his clubs, most notably the Treble with Manchester...
released his autobiography, in which he attacked Sugar as the reason he left Tottenham in 1997. Sheringham said Sugar had accused him of feigning injury during a long spell on the sidelines during the 1993/1994 season. He wrote that Sugar had refused to give him the five-year contract he wanted, as he had not believed Sheringham would still get into the Tottenham team when he was 36. Sheringham returned to Tottenham after his spell at
Manchester UnitedManchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
and continued to start for the first team until he was released in the summer of 2003, at age 37. Sheringham said that Sugar lacked ambition and was hypocritical. As an example, Sugar asked him for recommendations of players; when Sheringham suggested
EnglandThe England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
midfielder
Paul IncePaul Emerson Carlyle Ince is an English football manager and a former professional player. He has managed Blackburn Rovers, Milton Keynes Dons and Macclesfield Town...
, Sugar refused because he did not want to spend £4 million on a player who would soon be 30. After Sheringham left Spurs, Sugar approved the signing of
Les FerdinandLeslie "Les" Ferdinand MBE is a former English footballer. His playing career included spells at Queens Park Rangers, Besiktas J.K., Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers F.C., during which period he earned a number of appearances for England...
, aged 31, for a club record £6 million, on higher wages than Sheringham had wanted.
Sugar appointed seven managers in his time at Spurs. The first was
Peter ShreevesPeter Shreeves is a Welsh former football player, manager and coach.-Career:Shreeves was born in Neath in South Wales where his mother had been evacuated to during the early stages of World War II, but was brought up in Islington, London. He began his career with non-league Finchley from where he...
, followed by the dual management team of
Doug LivermoreDouglas Ernest Livermore is a former professional footballer and manager.-Playing career:Livermore began his career with Liverpool where he came through the youth system to eventually sign professional forms on the 1 November 1965 as an 18 year old...
and
Ray ClemenceRaymond Neal "Ray" Clemence, MBE is one of English and European football's most decorated goalkeepers ever and was part of the Liverpool team of the 1970s.-Scunthorpe United:...
, former Spurs midfielder
Osvaldo ArdilesOsvaldo César Ardiles , often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is a football coach, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 World Cup as part of the Argentine national team...
, and up and coming young manager
Gerry FrancisGerald Charles James Francis is an English former footballer and manager, now working as First Team coach at Stoke City.-Playing career:Francis made his debut for Queens Park Rangers v Liverpool in March 1969...
. In 1997 Sugar stunned the footballing world by appointing the relatively unknown Swiss manager
Christian GrossChristian Gross is a professional football coach and former player who currently manages Young Boys Bern. Before that he managed VfB Stuttgart until his dismissal in October 2010. He was manager of FC Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009.-Playing career:Gross began his playing career at...
. Gross lasted 9 months as Spurs finished in 14th place in 1998, and began the next season with just 3 points from their opening three games. Sugar next appointed
George GrahamGeorge Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...
, a former player and manager of bitter rivals
ArsenalArsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
. Despite his earning Tottenham's first trophy in 8 years, the Spurs fans never warmed to Graham, partly because of his Arsenal connections. They disliked the negative, defensive style of football which he had Spurs playing; fans claimed it was not the "Tottenham way".
In February 2001, Sugar sold his majority stake at Tottenham to leisure group
ENICENIC International Ltd is a British investment company ultimately controlled and owned by Joseph Lewis .Focused on sports, media and investment, the group is chaired by Daniel Levy....
, selling 27% of the club for £22 million. In June 2007, Sugar sold his remaining shares to ENIC for £25 million, ending his 16 year association with the club. He has described his time at Tottenham as "a waste of my life".
Amsair
Amsair Executive Aviation was founded in 1993, and is run by Sugar's son Daniel. As with Amstrad, the name Amsair is an acronym taken from the initials of Sugar's name "Alan Michael Sugar Air." Amsair operates a large
CessnaThe Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...
fleet, and one Embraer Legacy 650 with the registration G-SUGA, offering business and executive jet charters.
Amsprop
Amsprop is an investment firm owned by Sugar and controlled by his son Daniel. In September 2006 it bought the IBM South Bank building from private investors for £115 million. The IBM Centre occupies a prime site between the river and Upper Ground east of the National Theatre and west of ITV's London Television Centre. IBM's lease runs for another eight years. The trade press speculates that the site is likely to present a major redevelopment opportunity. This was featured in the last episode of the 2007 series of the Apprentice UK on 13 June that year, with the final two contestants planning to build a unique property that would be symbolic in the London skyline.
Simon AmbroseSimon Ambrose was the 2007 winner of the third series of the British version of reality TV show The Apprentice, in which contestants compete for a £100,000-a-year job working for British business magnate Sir Alan Sugar...
, winner of the 2007 series of The Apprentice, started working for Amsprop Estates after the series finished. However, in April 2010, he was reported to be leaving to start his own venture.
Viglen Ltd
Sugar is the owner (and Chairman of the board) of Viglen Ltd, an IT services provider catering primarily to the education and public sector. Following the sale of Amstrad PLC to BSkyB, Viglen is now Sugar's sole IT establishment.
Amscreen
Sugar is Chairman of Amscreen, a company run by his eldest son Simon Sugar, specialising in selling advertising space on
digital signageDigital signage is a form of electronic display that shows television programming, menus, information, advertising and other messages. Digital signs can be found in public and private environments, such as retail stores, hotels, restaurants and corporate buildings.Digital signage Displays are most...
screens that it provides to retailers, medical centres and leisure venues.
Apprentice winner
Yasmina SiadatanYasmina Siadatan is a British businesswoman of mixed British and Iranian descent. She was the winner of the fifth series of the British television show The Apprentice. As the winner she was offered a job working for businessman Sir Alan Sugar , who presents the show.-Early life:Siadatan was...
works there, selling into the
NHSThe National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
.
The Apprentice
Sugar became the star of the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reality show The Apprentice which has had one series broadcast each year from 2005, in the same role as
Donald TrumpDonald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
in the US version. Sugar fires a candidate each week until one candidate is left, who is then employed in his company.
As a condition for appearing in the third series, Sugar placed a requirement that the show be more business-orientated rather than just entertainment and that he should be portrayed in a less harsh light, to counter his somewhat belligerent reputation. He also expressed a desire that the calibre of the candidates should be higher than those who had appeared in the second series (who had come across as manifestly lacklustre) and that the motives of the candidates for participating are scrutinised more carefully, given that certain of the candidates in previous series had used their successful experience in the show as a springboard to advance their own careers (as occurred with
Michelle DewberryMichelle Louise Faye Dewberry is a British reality television contestant and businessperson from Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. Dewberry first came into the public eye in 2006 as the winner of the second series of British television programme The Apprentice.-Background:Dewberry was born on 9...
, the winner of the second series, who left Amstrad's employment only 8 months after taking up the job).
Sugar has criticised the US version of The Apprentice because "they’ve made the fatal error of trying to change things just for the sake of it and it backfired."
On 13 June 2007,
Simon AmbroseSimon Ambrose was the 2007 winner of the third series of the British version of reality TV show The Apprentice, in which contestants compete for a £100,000-a-year job working for British business magnate Sir Alan Sugar...
was crowned as the new apprentice, over Kristina Grimes. For the final task both candidates were given the chance to choose from 8 of the previous fired candidates. After arranging their teams the two finalists were told to create a concept for an office/hotel for one of Sugar's multimillion pound properties. Simon's idea, inspired by a fountain, seemed to interest and please the crowd and Sugar far more than Christina's idea of the Phoenix hotel. Sugar recognised the risks in hiring the less experienced Simon; however, it was a risk he was willing to take. Previously in 2006, Sugar was voted as the seventh scariest celebrity on television in a
Radio TimesRadio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
poll consisting of 5,000 people.
On 11 June 2008, Lee McQueen was crowned as Sugar's new apprentice, over Claire Young. For the final task, along with Alex Wotherspoon and Helene Speight, they had to produce a new men's fragrance in two groups of two. Lee and Claire won the task over the other two finalists and Lee went on to be chosen by Sugar to be his new Apprentice, in May 2010, saw the introduction of
Junior ApprenticeYoung Apprentice is a British reality television programme in which a group of twelve young people, between the ages of 16 and 17, compete to win a £25,000 prize from the British business magnate Lord Sugar...
which was also a success featuring contestants in the 16–19 age category.
Other appearances
In May 2008, Sugar made an appearance on An Audience Without Jeremy Beadle to pay tribute to
Jeremy BeadleJeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE was an English television presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s, he was a regular face on British television and in two years appeared 50 weeks of the year. His shows regularly topped the charts beating Coronation Street and EastEnders on one...
as they were close friends and both appeared on a celebrity special of
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...
in 2005.
In January 2009,
Fiona BruceFiona Elizabeth Bruce is a British journalist, newsreader and television presenter. Since joining the BBC in 1989, she has gone on to present many flagship programmes for the corporation including the BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten, Crimewatch, Call My Bluff and, most recently, Antiques Roadshow...
presented a
BBC TwoBBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
documentary entitled The Real Sir Alan. Also in 2009, Sugar appeared in television advertisements for investment bank NS&I and The Learning and Skills Council talking about apprenticeships.
In May 2011, Sugar presented Lord Sugar Tackles Football, a documentary looking into the financial woes of English football.
Honours and philanthropy
Sugar was
knightedThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 2000 for services to business. He holds two honorary Doctorates of Science degrees, awarded in 1988 by
City UniversityCity University London , is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute and became a university in 1966, when it adopted its present name....
and in 2005 by
Brunel UniversityBrunel University is a public research university located in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. The university is named after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel....
. He is a philanthropist for charities such as
Jewish CareJewish Care is a British charity, working mainly in London and South East England, providing health and social welfare support services for vulnerable members of the Jewish community. Tony Blair, when he was British Prime Minister, said of the charity: "Jewish Care is not just Jewish values in...
and
Great Ormond Street HospitalGreat Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
, and donated £200,000 to the British
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in 2001. On 5 June 2009 it was reported that Sugar had been offered a
peerageThe Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...
by Prime Minister
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
as part of a new enterprise role in his government, and he was subsequently created Baron Sugar, of Clapton in the
London Borough of HackneyThe London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
.
Sex discrimination law
Sugar has been accused of having an "outdated" attitude towards women. Regarding the
1970s UK lawThe Sex Discrimination Act 1975 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which protected men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marriage. The Act concerned employment, training, education, harassment, the provision of goods and services, and the disposal of premises...
which states that it is discriminatory and hence illegal for women to be asked at interview whether they plan to have children, Sugar is quoted as saying, "These laws are counter-productive for women, that's the bottom line. You're not allowed to ask, so it's easy – just don't employ them. It will get harder to get a job as a woman."
Bullying
Critics have described Sugar as "out-of-touch" and his work ethic as "a model of bad management in the UK. Negative, bullying and narrow-minded... (Sugar) rules by fear." Concerns have been raised by anti-bullying charity
KidscapeThe London-based charity Kidscape was established in 1985 by child psychologist Michele Elliott. Its focus is on children’s safety, with an emphasis on the prevention of harm by equipping children with techniques and mindsets that help them stay safe....
that "publicly humiliating" contestants on The Apprentice may give bullying credibility.
Gaffe
In February 2005 Sugar famously predicted that the
iPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
would be "dead, finished, gone, kaput" by the following Christmas. The comment topped the poll by
T3T3 magazine is a UK-based technology magazine, which specialises in gadgets, gizmos, and other technology.Originally, T3 stood for Tomorrow's Technology Today, but this isn't used anywhere in the magazine or on the website anymore. It's exclusively referred to as T3 or T3.com. The magazine is...
on the ten worst technology predictions ever.
Further reading
- David Thomas, "Alan Sugar – the Amstrad Story" (1991), paperback ISBN 978-0-330-31900-3.
- Alan Sugar, "The Apprentice: How to get hired not fired"
- Alan Sugar, "What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography
What You See Is What You Get is an autobiography written by British businessman and TV personality Sir Alan Sugar. It tells the story of his birth and childhood, and how he became a successful multi-millionaire tycoon by founding the company Amstrad, when he was 21 years old....
" (2010), hardback ISBN 978-0-230-74933-7.
External links