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Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar Kt is an English business magnate, media personality, and political
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advisor. From the East End of London, Sugar had an estimated fortune of £700m in 2011,
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and was ranked 89th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2011. In 2007, he sold his remaining
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interest in the consumer electronics company Amstrad, his largest and best-known business
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venture. Sugar was chairman of Tottenham Hotspur from
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1991 to 2001. Sugar appears in the BBC TV series The Apprentice, which has been broadcast
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annually since 2005 and is based upon the popular US television show of the same name,
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featuring the American entrepreneur Donald Trump.
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Early life Sugar was born in Hackney, east London, into
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a Jewish family. He is the youngest of four children of Fay and Nathan Sugar. His father
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was a tailor in the garment industry of the East End.
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When Sugar was young, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly
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hair, he was nicknamed "Mop head", a name that he still goes by in the present day.
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He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in Upper Clapton,
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Hackney, and made extra money by working at a greengrocers. After leaving school at 16,
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he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education.
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He started selling car aerials and electrical goods out of a van which he had bought with
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his savings of £50. Personal life
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Sugar and his wife Ann married on 28 April 1968; they have two sons and a daughter. Sugar
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and his wife live in Chigwell, Essex. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary
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on 11 May 2008 with a party at their home, where Sir Bruce Forsyth was the compere, Jackie
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Mason the comic and Sir Elton John played a set. His niece through marriage is actress
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Rita Simons, best known for playing Roxy Mitchell on the popular UK soap opera EastEnders.
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A collector of classic Rolls Royce and Bentley motor cars, Sugar owns a Rolls Royce Ghost
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with the number plate AMS1, which appears during all episodes of The Apprentice. A qualified
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pilot with 30 years' experience, Sugar owns a Cirrus SR22 four-seat aircraft, based at
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Stapleford Airfield. During an attempted landing at City Airport Manchester on 5 July 2008,
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Sugar suffered a crash in this aircraft because of wet and soft field conditions. No injuries
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were sustained, although Sugar was said to be "very shaken". He is a fan of and the former
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owner of Tottenham Hotspur. In February 2009, it was reported that Sugar
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had initiated legal proceedings against The Sun newspaper following a report that he had
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been named on a "hit list" of British Jews in response to Israel's ongoing military operation
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in Gaza. The threats are alleged to have been made by Glen Jenvey, the source of the original
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story in The Sun, who posted to a Muslim website under a false identity.
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Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £900m. Political involvement
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In February 2009, the Evening Standard journalist Andrew Gilligan claimed that Sugar had been
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approached to be the Labour candidate for Mayor of London in 2012. Sugar subsequently
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ridiculed the claim in an interview with The Guardian. But, during Prime Minister Gordon
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Brown's cabinet reshuffle on 5 June 2009, the BBC reported that Sugar would become Lord
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Sugar and had been offered a job as the government's "Enterprise Champion". On 7 June 2009 Sugar
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sought to clarify the non-political nature of his appointment. He stated that he would
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not be joining the government, that the appointment was politically neutral, and that all he wanted
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to do was help businesses and entrepreneurs. In August 2014, Sugar was one of 200 public
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figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence
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in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
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Ventures Amstrad
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Sugar founded Amstrad in 1968, the name being an acronym of his initials – Alan Michael
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Sugar Trading. The company began as a general importer/exporter and wholesaler, but soon
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specialised in consumer electronics. By 1970, the first manufacturing venture was underway.
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He achieved lower production prices by using injection moulding plastics for hi-fi turntable
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covers, severely undercutting competitors who used vacuum-forming processes. Manufacturing
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capacity was soon expanded to include the production of audio amplifiers and tuners.
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In 1980, Amstrad was listed on the London Stock Exchange and during the 1980s Amstrad
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doubled its profit and market value every year. By 1984, recognising the opportunity
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of the home computer era, Amstrad launched an 8-bit machine, the Amstrad CPC 464. Although
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the CPC range were attractive machines, with CP/M-capability and a good BASIC interpreter,
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it had to compete with its arch-rivals, the more graphically complex Commodore 64 and
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the popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum, not to mention the highly sophisticated BBC Micro. Despite
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this, three million units were sold worldwide with a long production life of eight years.
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It inspired an East German version with Russian Z80 clone processors. In 1985, Sugar had another
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major breakthrough with the launch of the Amstrad PCW 8256 word processor which, although
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made of cheap components, retailed at over £300. In 1986 Amstrad bought the rights to
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the Sinclair computer product line and produced two more ZX Spectrum models in a similar style
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to their CPC machines. It also developed the PC1512, a PC compatible computer, which became
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quite popular in Europe and was the first in a line of Amstrad PCs.
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At its peak, Amstrad achieved a stock market value of £1.2 billion, but the 1990s proved
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a difficult time for the company. The launch of a range of business PCs was marred by unreliable
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hard disks, which occasioned a high level of customer dissatisfaction and damage to
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Amstrad's reputation in the personal computer market, from which it never recovered. Subsequently,
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Amstrad sued Seagate for $100 million in lost revenue. In the early 1990s, Amstrad began
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to focus on portable computers rather than desktop computers. Also, in 1990, Amstrad
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entered the gaming market with the Amstrad GX4000, but it was a commercial failure, largely
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because there was only a poor selection of games available on it. Additionally, it was
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immediately superseded by the Japanese consoles: Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, which both
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had a much more comprehensive selection of games. In 1993, Amstrad released the PenPad,
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a PDA, and bought into Betacom and Viglen, so as to focus more on telecommunications
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rather than computers. Amstrad released the first of its combined telephony and e-mail
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devices, called the [email protected]iler, followed by the [email protected]ilerplus in 2002, neither of which
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sold in great volume. On 31 July 2007 it was announced that broadcaster
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BSkyB had agreed to buy Amstrad for about £125m. At the time of the takeover, Sugar
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commented that he wished to play a part in the business, saying: "I turn 60 this year
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and I have had 40 years of hustling in the business, but now I have to start thinking
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about my team of loyal staff, many of whom have been with me for many years." On 2 July
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2008 it was announced that Sugar was standing down from Amstrad as chairman, to focus solely
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on his other business interests. Tottenham Hotspur
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After a take-over battle with Robert Maxwell, Sugar teamed up with Terry Venables and bought
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Tottenham Hotspur football club in June 1991. Although Sugar's initial investment helped
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ease the financial troubles the club was suffering at the time, his treatment of Tottenham as
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a business venture and not a footballing one made him an unpopular figure among the Spurs
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fans. In Sugar's nine years as chairman, Tottenham Hotspur did not finish in the top six in the
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league and won just one trophy, the 1999 Football League Cup.
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Sugar sacked Venables the night before the 1993 FA Cup Final, a decision which led to
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Venables appealing to the high courts for reinstatement. A legal battle for the club
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took place over the summer, which Sugar won. The decision to sack Venables angered many
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of Tottenham fans, and Sugar later said, "I felt as though I'd killed Bambi."
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In 1992 he was the only representative of the then big five who voted in favour of Sky's
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bid for Premier League television rights. The other four voted in favour of ITV's bid,
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as it had promised to show big fives games more often. At the time of the vote, Sugar's
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company Amstrad was developing satellite dishes for Sky.
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In 1994 Sugar financed the transfers of three stars of the 1994 World Cup: Ilie Dumitrescu,
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Gica Popescu, and most notably Jürgen Klinsmann, who had an excellent first season in English
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football, being named Footballer of the Year. Because Spurs had not qualified for the UEFA
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Cup, Klinsmann decided to invoke an opt-out clause in his contract and left for Bayern
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Munich in the summer of 1995. Sugar appeared on television holding the last shirt Klinsmann
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wore for Spurs and said he wouldn't wash his car with it. He called foreigners coming into
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the Premier League at high wages as "Carlos Kickaballs". Klinsmann retaliated by calling
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Sugar "a man without honour", and said: "He only ever talks about money. He never
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talks about the game. I would say there is a big question mark over whether Sugar's heart
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is in the club and in football. The big question is what he likes more, the business or the
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football?" Klinsmann re-signed for Tottenham on loan in December 1997.
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In October 1998, former Tottenham striker Teddy Sheringham released his autobiography,
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in which he attacked Sugar as the reason he left Tottenham in 1997. Sheringham said Sugar
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had accused him of feigning injury during a long spell on the sidelines during the 1993/1994
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season. He wrote that Sugar had refused to give him the five-year contract he wanted,
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as he had not believed Sheringham would still get into the Tottenham team when he was 36.
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Sheringham returned to Tottenham after his spell at Manchester United and continued to
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start for the first team until he was released in the summer of 2003, at age 37. Sheringham
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said that Sugar lacked ambition and was hypocritical. As an example, Sugar asked him for recommendations
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of players; when Sheringham suggested England midfielder Paul Ince, Sugar refused because
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he did not want to spend £4 million on a player who would soon be 30. After Sheringham
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left Spurs, Sugar approved the signing of Les Ferdinand, aged 31, for a club record
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£6 million, on higher wages than Sheringham had wanted.
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Sugar appointed seven managers in his time at Spurs. The first was Peter Shreeves, followed
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by the dual management team of Doug Livermore and Ray Clemence, former Spurs midfielder
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Osvaldo Ardiles, and up and coming young manager Gerry Francis. In 1997 Sugar stunned the footballing
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world by appointing the relatively unknown Swiss manager Christian Gross. Gross lasted
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9 months as Spurs finished in 14th place in 1998, and began the next season with just
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3 points from their opening three games. Sugar next appointed George Graham, a former player
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and manager of bitter rivals Arsenal. Despite his earning Tottenham's first trophy in 8
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years, the Spurs fans never warmed to Graham, partly because of his Arsenal connections.
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They disliked the negative, defensive style of football which he had Spurs playing; fans
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claimed it was not the "Tottenham way". In February 2001, Sugar sold his majority
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stake at Tottenham to leisure group ENIC, selling 27% of the club for £22 million.
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In June 2007, Sugar sold his remaining shares to ENIC for £25 million, ending his 16-year
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association with the club. He has described his time at Tottenham as "a waste of my life".
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Sugar later donated £3 million from the proceeds of the sale of his interests in Tottenham
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Hotspur to the refurbishment of the Hackney Empire in his native East End of London.
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Amsair Amsair Executive Aviation was founded in 1993,
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and is run by Sugar's son Daniel Patrick. As with Amstrad, the name Amsair is an acronym
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taken from the initials of Sugar's name "Alan Michael Sugar Air." Amsair operates a large
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Cessna fleet, and one Embraer Legacy 650 with the registration G-SUGA, offering business
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and executive jet charters. Amsprop
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Amsprop is an investment firm owned by Sugar and is now controlled by his son Daniel Patrick.
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Simon Ambrose, winner of the 2007 series of The Apprentice, started working for Amsprop
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Estates after the series finished. However, in April 2010, he was reported to be leaving
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to start his own venture. Viglen Ltd
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Sugar was the owner of Viglen Ltd, an IT services provider catering primarily to the education
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and public sector. He resigned his position on 1 July 2009. Following the sale of Amstrad
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PLC to BSkyB, Viglen is now Sugar's sole IT establishment.
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Amscreen Sugar is Chairman of Amscreen, a company run
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by his eldest son Simon Sugar, specialising in selling advertising space on digital signage
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screens that it provides to retailers, medical centres and leisure venues.
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Apprentice winner Yasmina Siadatan works there, selling into the NHS.
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The screens use a Face detection system called OptimEyes to try to identify age and sex of
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its viewers YouView
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On 7 March 2011, Sugar replaced Kip Meek on the board of the BBC initiated IPTV project
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known as YouView which is also backed by ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and broadband providers
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including BT and TalkTalk. Sugar was paid £500,000 for chairing YouView for the year
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ending March 2012. Television appearances
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The Apprentice
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Sugar became the star of the BBC reality show The Apprentice which has had one series broadcast
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each year from 2005, in the same role as Donald Trump in the US version. Sugar fires a candidate
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each week until one candidate is left, who is then employed in his company or wins a
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partnership with Sugar, including his investment of £250,000 to establish their own business.
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As a condition for appearing in the third series, Sugar placed a requirement that the
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show be more business-orientated rather than just entertainment and that he should be portrayed
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in a less harsh light, to counter his somewhat belligerent reputation. He also expressed
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a desire that the calibre of the candidates should be higher than those who had appeared
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in the second series and that the motives of the candidates for participating are scrutinised
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more carefully, given that certain of the candidates in previous series had used their
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successful experience in the show as a springboard to advance their own careers.
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Sugar has criticised the US version of The Apprentice because "they've made the fatal
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error of trying to change things just for the sake of it and it backfired."
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Young Apprentice
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Young Apprentice is a British reality television programme in which a group of twelve young
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people, aged 16 and 17, compete to win a £25,000 prize from the Lord Sugar. The six-part series
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began on BBC One and BBC HD on Wednesday, 12 May 2010, concluding on Thursday, 10 June
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of the same year, and also featured Nick Hewer and Karren Brady as Sugar's advisors. Karren
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Brady made her debut on Junior Apprentice, because it aired before she appeared on the
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adult version. The programme concluded with Sugar awarding the prize fund to 17-year-old
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Arjun Rajyagor and Tim Ankers finished in second place.
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The second series started in October 2011, and this time featured eight episodes and
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twelve contestants. The series was won by Zara Brownless, with James McCullough as runner-up.
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Originally proposed in March 2008 and confirmed in June 2009, Junior Apprentice received mostly
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positive reviews from critics. The programme is a spin-off from the series The Apprentice,
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which was in turn spawned from an American series of the same name, which stars the entrepreneur
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Donald Trump. Sugar's role under Gordon Brown's government sparked a debate over the BBC's
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political impartiality regulations in the run-up to the UK 2010 election, resulting
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in both Junior Apprentice and the sixth regular edition of The Apprentice being delayed.
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Other appearances In May 2008, Sugar made an appearance on An
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Audience Without Jeremy Beadle to pay tribute to Jeremy Beadle as they were close friends
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and both appeared on a celebrity special of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2005.
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In January 2009, Fiona Bruce presented a BBC Two documentary entitled The Real Sir Alan.
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Also in 2009, Sugar appeared in television advertisements for investment bank NS&I and
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The Learning and Skills Council talking about apprenticeships.
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In May 2011, Sugar presented Lord Sugar Tackles Football, a documentary looking into the financial
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woes of English football. In September 2012, Sugar appeared as himself
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in a cameo in the Doctor Who episode "The Power of Three". Sugar's cameo was filmed
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on the set of The Apprentice. In November 2012, Sugar appeared as himself
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in a cameo in a special episode of EastEnders for Children in Need.
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Honours and philanthropy Sugar was knighted as a Knight Bachelor in
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the 2000 New Year Honours "for services to the Home Computer and Electronics Industry".
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He holds two honorary Doctorates of Science, awarded in 1988 by City University and in
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2005 by Brunel University. He is a philanthropist for charities such as Jewish Care and Great
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Ormond Street Hospital, and donated £200,000 to the British Labour Party in 2001. On 5
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June 2009 it was reported that Sugar had been offered a peerage by Prime Minister Gordon
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Brown as part of a new enterprise role in his government, and he was subsequently created
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a life peer as Baron Sugar, of Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney on 20 July 2009.
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Controversy Sex discrimination law
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Sugar has been accused of having an "outdated" attitude towards women. Regarding the 1970s
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UK law which states that it is discriminatory and hence illegal for women to be asked at
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interview whether they plan to have children, Sugar is quoted as saying, "These laws are
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counter-productive for women, that's the bottom line. You're not allowed to ask, so it's easy
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– just don't employ them. It will get harder to get a job as a woman."
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Bullying Critics have described Sugar as "out-of-touch"
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and his work ethic as "a model of bad management in the UK. Negative, bullying and narrow-minded...
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rules by fear, with an iron fist not dissimilar to the political style of Joseph Stalin" Concerns
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have been raised by anti-bullying charity Kidscape that "publicly humiliating" contestants