Sugar, Alan Michael (1947- )

English entrepreneur and founder in 1968 of Amstrad, which became one of the UK's leading consumer electronics companies. It produced innovative, low-priced goods throughout the 1980s. When Amstrad's share price fell in the 1990s recession, Sugar reorganized the company to launch a new generation of consumer products. He was chairman of London's Tottenham Hotspur football club 1991-2001, and star of the popular reality television series The Apprentice (2005) in the UK.

Sugar's IBM-compatible PC, launched in 1986 at a quarter of the price of leading market products, captured 25% of the European market. The same year Amstrad absorbed Sinclair Research, owned by English computer entrepreneur Clive Sinclair, which had gone bankrupt. After diversifying into telecommunications in the 1990s, Sugar focused on higher-margin consumer electronic products, such as the e-mail enabled phone. In 2000 Amstrad was the first company to have full approval from television satellite company BSkyB for its digital set-top box. Sugar was knighted in 1999. The 2006 Sunday Times Rich List estimated his worth at £800 million.

Sugar was born in Hackney, London, the youngest son of an East End tailor. Briefly working as an educational statistician, he started Amstrad - an acronym for Alan M Sugar Trading - selling car aerials from the boot of his car, and then moved into manufacturing hi-fi equipment and other consumer electronics. Amstrad went public in 1980.

In 1991 Sugar bought Tottenham Hotspur for £7 million in partnership with English coach Terry Venables. He won a libel action against the Daily Mail in 2001 over reports about his stewardship of the football club.