Introducing Sir Alan Sugar
“Once you decide to work for yourself, you never go back to work for somebody else.” Alan Sugar, English entrepreneur who has amassed a personal fortune of more than £850 million.
From humble origins in the East End of London, Alan Sugar has risen to become one of the UK’s most prominent and successful entrepreneurs. Born in 1947, by the age of just 21 Sugar had founded the electronics company Amstrad – the name being an acronym of his initials: Alan Michael Sugar Trading.
This fledgling company took Europe by surprise. Two years after its founding, it produced affordable hi-fi turntable covers using injection moulding plastics opposed to the traditional vacuum moulds. This gave his product a significantly lower price giving the company such success that it was to later be placed on the London Stock Exchange. During the 1980′s Sugar’s company doubled in share price each year and continuously tapped into different markets. At its peak Amstrad was worth £1.2 billion.
After selling this company in 2007, Alan Sugar has made his money by expanding into even more diverse markets including the property company Amsprop. This business venture now boasts a portfolio which includes exclusive commercial properties all over the UK – from Essex warehouses to vast upmarket developments in the City and Mayfair.
In 2005 Sugar became the star of the BBC reality show The Apprentice in the same role as Donald Trump in the popular US version. Whittling down sixteen contestants according to success at various business tasks, Sugar fires a contestant each week until only one candidate is left, who is then awarded the prize of a high-flying position within his company. With his brusque manner and sharp retorts, he is a surprising TV natural who has won a legion of TV fans in the UK.
A keen humanitarian, Sugar took the job on The Apprentice because he wanted to be a role model. So eager was he that he requested no payment and when the BBC insisted, he gave his money to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. To date he sits on the board of more than 5 charities which aims at eradicating childhood poverty.
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