Alan Sugar

Infobox Person
name = Sir Alan Sugar


birth_name = Alan Michael Sugar
birth_date = birth date and age|1947|3|24|df=y
birth_place = Hackney, East London, England
death_date =
death_place =
death_cause =
nationality = British
known_for = The Apprentice, Amstrad
occupation = Businessman
networth = increase £830 million,
(US$1.66 billion) or more
education = Brooke House School
spouse = Ann Sugar (1968—)
religion = Jewish

Sir Alan Michael Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is an English entrepreneur, businessman, and television personality.

From origins in the East End of London, Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £830m (US$1.66 billion),cite web |url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/article3759032.ece |title=Sir Alan Sugar |accessdate=2008-07-31|date=2008-04-27|publisher=The Sunday Times] and was ranked 92nd in the "Sunday Times Rich List 2008". Despite being best known as a technology businessman, most of Sugar's wealth now derives from his property portfolio, rather than business ventures. [cite web | title=So just how good is Alan Sugar? | publisher=MoneyWeek | url=http://www.moneyweek.com/file/12546/so-just-how-good-is-alan-sugar.html | accessdate=2007-03-28 |last= Lewis|first= Jane] He has recently sold Amstrad, one of his large business ventures.

Sugar is also notable for his time as chairman of Tottenham Hotspur from 1991 to 2001, and for starring in the BBC TV series "The Apprentice", which has so far had four series broadcast (in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008). The series is based upon the American television show of the same name, featuring entrepreneur Donald Trump, which was already popular in the United States. [cite web |url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/realitytv/a116406/donald-trump-praises-sugars-apprentice.html?rss |title=Donald Trump praises Sugar's 'Apprentice' |accessdate=2008-07-31|last=Kilkelly |first=Daniel|date=2008-07-28|publisher=Digitalspy]

Biography

Sugar was born in Hackney, East London. He is the youngest of four children of Nathan Sugar, who was a tailor in the East End garment industry. [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article1585285.ece ]

When Sugar was a child, his family lived in a council flat. He attended the Brooke House School in Upper Clapton, Hackney. After leaving school at 16cite web | title=The Apprentice - The Board | publisher=BBC | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/board.html | accessdate=2007-05-08] he worked briefly for the Civil Service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education. He then started selling car aerials and electrical goods out of a van he had bought with his savings of £100.cite web | title=Alan sugar bio | publisher=Virgin | url=http://www.virginmedia.com/money/moneymakers/alansugar.php | accessdate=2007-05-08]

Ventures

Amstrad

Sugar founded the electronics company Amstrad in 1968, the name being an acronym of his initials - "Alan Michael Sugar Trading".

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 Exchange and during the 1980s, Amstrad doubled its profit and market value every year. Fact|date=May 2007

By 1984, recognising the opportunity of the home computer era, Amstrad launched an 8-bit machine Amstrad CPC 464. Although the CPC range were attractive machines, with CP/M-capability and a good BASIC interpreter, it had to compete with its arch-rivals, the more graphically complex Commodore 64 and the popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum, not to mention the highly sophisticated BBC Micro. Despite this, three million units were sold worldwide with a long production life of eight years, [cite web |title=Amstrad Products Archive |publisher=Amstrad |url=http://www.amstrad.com/products/archive/index.html | accessdate=2008-05-01 ] even inspiring an East German version with Russian Z80 clone processors. [cite web |url=http://www.wacci.org.uk/magazine/139/139_04.html |title=Meet the Relatives |accessdate=2008-07-31|last=Thacker |first=Kevin|year=2003|publisher=WACCI] In 1985, Sugar had another major breakthrough with the launch of the Amstrad PCW 8256 word processor which, although made of very 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 own CPC machines. It also developed the PC1512, a PC compatible computer, which became quite popular in Europe [cite web |url=http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=183 |title=Amstrad PC 1512 |accessdate=2008-07-31|publisher=old-computers.com] and was the first in a line of Amstrad PCs.

At its peak, Amstrad achieved a stock market value of £1.2 billion [ [http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=422880&in_page_id=3 Murdoch tells Sir Alan: 'You're bought' | This is Money ] ] , 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 Seagate), which occasioned a high level of customer dissatisfaction and great damage to Amstrad's reputation in the personal computer market, from which it never recovered.Fact|date=May 2007 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 GX4000, but it was a commercial failure, partly because it used 8-bit technology [cite web |url=http://www.consolepassion.co.uk/amstrad-gx4000.htm |title=Amstrad GX4000 |accessdate=2008-07-31|publisher=Console Passion] unlike the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. In 1993, Amstrad released the PenPad, a PDA, which was bought into Betacom and Viglen, 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 are sold extensively. [cite web | title=Amstrad dumps e-m@iler phone | publisher=VNUnet | url=http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142725/amstrad-dumps-iler-phone | date=2007-06-10 | accessdate=2007-06-10]

On 31 July 2007 it was announced that broadcaster BSkyB had agreed to buy Amstrad for about £125m.cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6923517.stm|title=BSkyB agrees £125m Amstrad deal|accessdate=2007-07-31|date=2007-07-31|publisher=BBC News] 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. [cite web | url = http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02/sugar_leaves_amstrad/ | title = Alan Sugar leaves Amstrad | accessdate = 208-07-02]

Tottenham Hotspur

After a take-over battle with Robert Maxwell, Sugar teamed up with Terry Venables 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, the way he treated Tottenham from a purely business perspective and not a footballing one made him an unpopular figure among the Spurs fans. [cite web | title=Sugar leaves sour taste | publisher=BBC | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/1081909.stm | accessdate=2008-06-28] In his 9 years as chairman, Spurs did not finish in the top 6 in the league and won just one trophy, the 1999 Worthington Cup.

His reign at Tottenham was not short of controversy. He sacked Venables the night before the FA Cup final, a decision which led to Venables appealing to the high courts to get himself reinstated. A legal battle for the club took place over the summer, which Sugar won. The decision to sack Venables angered many of Tottenham fans, and Sugar later said "I felt as though I'd killed Bambi". [cite web | title=Profile: Sir Alan Sugar | publisher=BBC | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6923678.stm | accessdate=2008-06-28]

In 1994 Sugar financed the transfers of 3 stars of the 1994 World Cup, Ilie Dumitrescu, Gica Popescu, and most notably Jurgen Klinsmann, who had an excellent first season in English football, being named Footballer of the Year. However, 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. This prompted Sugar to appear on television holding the last shirt Klinsmann ever wore for Spurs and said he wouldn't even wash his car with it. He then labelled foreigners coming into the Premier League on 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?". [cite web | title=Klinsmann and Pleat brought back to rescue Tottenham | publisher=The Independent | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19971223/ai_n14138953 | accessdate=2008-06-28 |last= Moore|first= Glenn]

However, the two made up their differences and Klinsmann re-signed for Tottenham on loan in December 1997.

In October 1998, former Tottenham striker Teddy Sheringham released his autobiography, in which he launched a scathing attack on Sugar, claiming that he was the reason that he had left Tottenham in 1997. Among the reasons Sheringham gave for his dislike of Sugar were the fact that he had accused Sheringham of feigning injury during a long spell on the sidelines during the 1993-1994 season. He also said that Sugar had refused to give him the 5 year contract he desired, because he did not believe Sheringham would still get into the Tottenham team when he was 36. Ironically Sheringham returned to Tottenham after his spell at Manchester United and continued to start for the first team until he was released in the summer of 2003, aged 37. Sheringham also claimed that Sugar lacked ambition, and that he was hypocritical. An example he gave was that when Sugar had asked him what sort of players he wanted at the club, he suggested England midfielder Paul Ince, but Sugar refused because he did not want to spend £4 million on a player who would be 30 in a few months time. Just after Sheringham left Spurs, Sugar sanctioned the signing of Les Ferdinand, who was aged 31, for a club record £6 million, on higher wages than what Sheringham had wanted. [Teddy Sheringham: My Autobiography]

Sugar appointed seven managers in his time at Spurs. The first of these were Peter Shreeves, the dual management team of Doug Livermore and Ray Clemence, former Spurs midfielder Ossie Ardiles and up and coming young manager Gerry Francis. However, in 1997 Sugar stunned the footballing world by appointing relatively unknown Swiss manager Christian Gross. Gross only lasted 9 months in charge as Spurs finished in 14th place in 1998, and began the next season with just 3 points from their opening 3 games. If that appointment appeared controversial, it was nothing compared to the one that followed it, as Sugar appointed George Graham, a former player and manager of bitter rivals Arsenal. Despite producing Tottenham's first trophy in 8 years, the Spurs fans never warmed to Graham, partly because of his Arsenal connections, but also because of the negative, defensive style of football he had Spurs playing, which fans claimed was not the "Tottenham way". [cite web | title=Graham's losing battle | publisher=BBC | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/1225274.stm| accessdate=2008-06-28]

In February 2001, Sugar sold his majority stake at Tottenham to leisure group ENIC, 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 Cessna fleet and offers business and executive jet charters. Through its alliances, it has access to over five thousand aircraft of all sizes and shapes, used mostly in collaborations with Blue Star Jets.Fact|date=May 2007

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. [cite web | title=Amstrad boss buys IBM building in £115 million deal | publisher=LondonSE1 | url=http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/2353 | date=2006-09-28 | accessdate=2007-06-08] This was featured in the last episode of the 2007 series of the Apprentice UK on the 13 June that year, with the final two contestants planning to build a unique property that would be symbolic in the London skyline.

Simon Ambrose, winner of the 2007 series of The Apprentice, currently works for Amsprop Estates.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 Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, Viglen is now Sugar's sole IT establishment.

Viglen Ltd

Sir Alan is the owner (and Chairman of the board) of Viglen Ltd, an IT services provider catering primarily to the education and public sector. [cite web |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4829482.stm | title = Sugar comments leave bitter taste | date = 21 March 2006 | accessdate = 2008-07-10]

TV Appearances

"The Apprentice"

Sugar became the star of the BBC reality show "The Apprentice" which has had four series broadcast in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, in the same role as Donald Trump 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. [cite web | title=Back in Apprentice's firing line | publisher=BBC News | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6471463.stm | accessdate=2007-04-27 |last= Robb|first= Stephen] 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 Dewberry, the winner of the second series, who left Amstrad's employment only 4 months after winning).

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." [cite web | title=Sir Alan Sugar Speaks | publisher=MSN | url=http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/tv/realitytv/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4533081 | accessdate=2007-04-27 |last= Last|first= Colleen]

On 13 June 2007, Simon Ambrose 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 Times" poll consisting of 5,000 people. [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=410712&in_page_id=1766&in_page_id=1766&expand=true Ramsay is scariest TV celebrity] . Daily Mail. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.]

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.

Honours and philanthropy

Sugar was knighted in 2000 for services to business [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/board.html BBC - The Apprentice - The Board ] ] . He holds two honorary Doctorates of Science degrees, awarded in 1988 by City University and in 2005 by Brunel University. [cite web | title=Honorary Graduate Sir Alan Sugar | publisher=Brunel University | url=http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/hongrads/2005/sugar | accessdate=2007-04-24] He is a philanthropist for charities such as Jewish Care and Great Ormond Street Hospital, and donated £200,000 to the British Labour Party in 2001. [ cite web | title=Electoral Commission Register of Donors | publisher=The Electoral Commission | url= http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/regdpoliticalparties.cfm | accessdate =2007-06-14]

Controversy

exist discrimination

Sugar has been criticised for having an "outdated" [ [http://news.scotsman.com/womenandwork/Notsosweet-response-to-Sugar39s-39outdated39.3781391.jp Not-so-sweet response to Sugar's 'outdated' remarks on women] ] attitude towards women. Regarding the law passed in the 1970s in the UK which states that it is illegal for women to be asked at interview whether they plan to have children (on the grounds that it is discriminatory), Sugar is quoted as saying, "You're not allowed to ask, so it's easy, just don't employ them". [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/01/gender.women/print Now, the backlash] ]

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" [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-461607/Why-earth-want-work-Sir-Alan-Sugar.html] ] . Concerns have been raised by anti-bullying charity Kidscape that "publicly humiliating" contestants on "The Apprentice" may give bullying credibility [ [http://www.myparkmag.co.uk/articles/television/the-apprentice/the-apprentice---show-faces-bullying-allegations.html] ] .

Personal life

Sugar met his wife Ann when he was 17 and she was sixteen. They married on 11 May 1968 and have three children, and live in Chigwell, Essex. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 2008, in a party at their home where Bruce Forsyth was the compere, Jackie Mason the comic and Sir Elton John played a set. [citeweb|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1018990/How-Sir-Alan-Sugar-celebrated-40th-wedding-anniversary-2m-party.html|title=How Sir Alan Sugar celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with a £2m party|author=Morgan, Piers|publisher=Daily Mail|date=2008-05-12|accessdate=2008-07-06]

A collector of classic Rolls Royce and Bentley motor cars, he famously owns a Rolls Royce Phantom with the number plate AMS1 which appears during all episodes of "The Apprentice." Sugar is also a qualified pilot with 30 years experience, and owns a Cirrus SR20 four seat aircraft, based at Stapleford Airfield.citeweb|url=http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/2008/07/06/sir-alan-sugar-cheats-death-as-plane-overshoots-runway-98487-20633988/|title=Sir Alan Sugar cheats death as plane overshoots runway|publisher=Sunday Mirror|date=2008-07-06|accessdate=2008-07-06] [citeweb|url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article1387216.ece|title=Sugar air scare ‘no big deal|publsiher=The Sun|date=2008-07-07|accessdate=2008-07-07] 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".

References

Further reading

* David Thomas, "Alan Sugar - the Amstrad Story" (1991), paperback ISBN 0-330-31900-0.
* Alan Sugar, "The Apprentice: How to get hired not fired"

External links

*imdb name|id=0837377|name=Alan Michael Sugar
* [http://www.amstrad.com/default.shtml Amstrad website]
* [http://www.amsair.biz Amsair website]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice BBC's The Apprentice]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/board.html BBC Profile]
* [http://www.pleasethink.com/sir-alan-sugar-in-the-apprentice/ Read Sir Alan Sugar's Bio]