Many entrepreneurs hold the UK’s biggest business leaders in high esteem as they attempt to emulate their achievements. Doing your research and finding out how these entrepreneurs made their money and found success is a favourite past-time of the aspiring business owner.
Business mogul, Lord Alan Sugar has been revealed as the UK’s ‘most searched for’ company director of 2017 in new research. The entrepreneur turned TV personality, topped the top 20 list for the second consecutive year as UK business owners searched for him more than any other director in the last 12 months. This follows the end of another successful year for Lord Sugar, after 6.5 million people tuned into this year’s Apprentice final in December, reaching its highest viewing figures in three years.
Compiled by Creditsafe, the global business intelligence experts, the list details the most popular searches on its database by customers using the service to browse director information such as previous business history. The facility is often used by organisations keen to find out as much information as possible about who they are planning to work with, before agreeing to a commercial deal.
Lord Sugar was joined at the top of this year’s list by a number of new, less well-known faces, including one of the 2017 Apprentice candidates Michaela Wain. The director of Design and Build UK and Vantage Utility Connections made her debut in Creditsafe’s list, beating the likes of Richard Branson to come in fourth. Her inclusion was likely influenced by the fact Michaela was a favourite in last year’s show, with her firing by Lord Sugar during interview week causing anger among fans.
Glenn Tamplin, director of steel company AGP and owner and manager of Billericay Town FC, was also a new addition to the list at fifth. Since his acquisition of the football club in 2016, Tamplin has regularly made national headlines after signing a number of former Premier League players including Jamie O’Hara and Jermaine Pennant, and more recently for a driving ban and hefty fine.
Others who made the top 20 included David Beckham and Peter Jones. This comes after it was revealed in December that Beckham’s company, DB Ventures Ltd, made £2million per month last year, while his wife Victoria’s fashion label VBL operated at a loss of £8.5million. Meanwhile, Dragons’ Den star, Peter Jones, fell from fourth place in last year’s list to seventeenth and 2015’s number one, Jeremy Clarkson failed to make the top 20.
Rachel Mainwaring, operations director at Creditsafe UK, says, “2017’s list is somewhat surprising. In past years, scandals and bankruptcies within high-profile organisations have influenced the list. This year, although Lord Sugar has held onto the top spot, we’ve seen a number of new entries shake things up.
“It’s clear that it’s not just business failures and celebrities that are of interest to those searching for director history. Time was also spent investigating the risk associated with lesser-known directors of successful companies, perhaps reflecting the feelings of economic uncertainty that have plagued business owners in 2017. It’ll be interesting to see if this remains the case in a year’s time.”
The top 20 most searched for business leaders in 2017:
- Alan Sugar – businessman, entrepreneur, media personality and politician
- Michael Smyth – UK business director
- Ruth Elliot – UK business director
- Michaela Wain – 2017 Apprentice candidate and director of Design and Build UK and Vantage Utility Connections
- Glenn Tamplin – director of AGP Steel and owner of Billericay Town FC
- Jay Hawkes – director of Anglia Crane and Plant Hire
- Raymond Bailey – UK business director
- Mark Davey – UK business director
- Demis Ohandjanian – director of The HLD Group
- Mahmud Kamani – director and co-founder of Boohoo
- Ayiaz Ahmed – director of Wessex Bristol
- Paul Radford – UK business director
- Peter Thomas – UK business director
- Sanjeev Gupta – director of Liberty House Group and GFG Alliance
- Richard Drage – UK business director
- David Beckham – ex-footballer and director of DB Ventures Ltd
- Peter Jones – businessman, entrepreneur and media personality
- Richard Branson – founder of Virgin Group
- Richard Coulson – UK business director
- Benjamin Francis – UK business director
