Sir Alan Sugar

He may be from humble East End roots but Sir Alan Sugar has achieved a net worth of over £800m.

The son of a tailor, he left school at the age of 16 and started a short-lived career in the civil service as a Statistician, soon choosing to sell electrical items instead. At the age of 21 he founded Amstrad (Alan Michael Sugar TRADing). Two years later he was manufacturing low-priced hi-fi turntable covers and in 1980, Amstrad was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

The 80s was a boom time for Sir Alan, with his company’s share price doubling in value every year. In 1986 he launched a word processor with an affordable price tag which took Europe by storm. Keeping up with the times, he now produces set top boxes and personal video recorders.

As well as showing the nation some basic rules of thumb for budding entrepreneurs, Sir Alan is one of the government’s team of figureheads who travel around schools and universities encouraging young people to have an entrepreneurial spirit.

Sir Alan is sure that if The Apprentice was around 30 years ago he would have won it.