Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, politician, and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics company Amstrad . In 2007, he sold his remaining interest in the company in a deal to BSkyB for £125m.
Sugar was the chairman and part-owner of Tottenham Hotspur from 1991 to 2001, selling his remaining stake in the club in 2007 as well, for £25m He appears in the BBC TV series The Apprentice, which has been broadcast annually since 2005.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Sugar became a billionaire in 2015. In 2016, his fortune was estimated at £1.15bn, ranking him as the 95th richest-person in the UK.
Sugar was born in Hackney, East London, into a Jewish family His father, Nathan, was a tailor in the garment industry of the East End. His maternal grandparents were born in Russia, and his paternal grandfather was born in Poland. Sugar's paternal grandmother, Sarah Sugar, was born in London to Polish parents.
When Sugar was young, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly hair, he was nicknamed "Mop head", a name that he still goes by in the present day. He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in Upper Clapton, Hackney, and made extra money by working at a greengrocers. After leaving school at the age of sixteen, he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education. He began selling radio aerials for cars and other electrical goods out of a van which he had bought for £50 and insured for £8. To afford this, he withdrew all of his postal savings which totalled just £100
Sugar is an atheist, but remains proud of his Jewish heritage. Sugar and his wife Ann (née Simons), a former hairdresser, married on 28 April 1968 at Great Portland Street, London. They have two sons and a daughter. The couple live in Chigwell, Essex. Sugar owns a four-seat Cirrus SR22 aircraft and a 13-seat Embraer Legacy 650 jet. During an attempted landing in his Cirrus at the grass airfield City Airport Manchester on 5 July 2008, Sugar overshot the runway after touchdown due to poor weather and wet field conditions. No injuries were sustained, although the plane was slightly damaged and consequently grounded.
He is a supporter and former owner of Tottenham Hotspur.
In February 2009, it was reported that Sugar had initiated legal proceedings against The Sun 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 Gaza. The threats are alleged to have been made by Glen Jenvey, the source of the original story in The Sun, who posted to a Muslim website under a false identity. In recent years Sugar has enjoyed a running love-hate Twitter war with broadcaster Piers Morgan, the former Daily Mirror editor and CNN anchor. On 10 June 2020, Sugar, a pilot since 1975, announced on Twitter that he was taking delivery of a new 2020 Cirrus SR22T single-engine aircraft from the United States where he owns a Florida home and multiple boats, including a refurbished one named Little Tub and a superyacht.
In 2015, Sugar had an estimated fortune of £1.04 billion (US$1.58 billion)
United Kingdom History
Copyright © 2024 Uk-history - All Rights Reserved.