Claude Littner (born 4 May 1949) is an American-born British business executive and the former chairman of

Viglen Viglen Ltd provides IT products and services, including storage systems, servers, workstations and data/voice communications equipment and services. History The company was formed in 1975, by Vigen Boyadjian. During the 1980s, the company s ...

Powerleague Powerleague is a leading operator of small sided football artificial pitches with 42 football centres in the UK, Ireland and Netherlands, based in Fitzrovia, London in England. It has an exclusive playing surface called “Power Pitch” which i ...

, ASCO and Azzuri Communications. He is also the Deputy Chairman of Blacks Leisure and former chief executive of

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. He is also known from his appearances on the British version of ''

The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a reality talent game show franchise originally aired in 2004 in the United States. Created by U.S.-based British producer Mark Burnett, the show depicts contestants from around the country with various professional backg ...

'', interviewing for his former boss

Alan Sugar Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics com ...

. Littner became one of Sugar's aides from the 2015 series onwards.

Early life

Littner was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, to an American mother and an

Austrian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewis ...

father, who had fled the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

in the 1930s. His father worked as a

chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...

. The family migrated to the United Kingdom soon after Littner's birth. Littner holds British citizenship, and is fluent in French. He is a practising Jew.

Career

After working in accountancy, Littner developed a career as a turnaround specialist. It was in this role that he met Alan Sugar, and agreed to chair a number of Sugar's companies. In the early 1990s, Littner was chairman and chief executive of Amstrad International, Amstrad Spain and Dancall Telecom. Claude Littner served as: non-executive chairman of Azzurri Communications; deputy chairman of

Blacks Leisure Group Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd. is a British retailer, headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester, England which owns the British outdoor retailers Blacks, Millets and Ultimate Outdoors. Blacks is the largest outdoor retailer in the UK with stores ...

from August 2008 to July 2009; executive chairman of the international oilfield support services business ASCO from 2004 to 2007;

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of ...

of Norton Way Motors Ltd and Myeloma UK. A non-executive director of Amstrad since June 2007, in 2009 Sugar resigned a majority of his UK company directorships, handing over his former management duties to Littner, including the chairman's post at Viglen.

Football

When Sugar was majority owner and chairman of

, Littner was its Chief Executive from 1993 to 1998. He once almost turned down a request from The Princess Royal for tickets to a game. He resigned his directorship in 2001. Littner bought into Powerleague, a

five-a-side football Five-a-side football is a version of minifootball, in which each team fields five players (four outfield players and a goalkeeper). Other differences from football include a smaller pitch, smaller goals, and a reduced game duration. Matches a ...

centre operator in 2001. After leading a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of ...

from 3i Group in 2003, it floated on AIM in 2006. The company was taken over in 2009 by

Patron Capital Patron Capital Partners ("Patron") is a European private equity real estate fund with its main investment advisor, Patron Capital Advisers LLP based in London, United Kingdom. Patron Capital Partners represents approximately €4.0 billion of equi ...

. and he netted some £50m.

''The Apprentice''

Littner came to wider UK public recognition through his direct and confrontational style of

job interview A job interview is an interview consisting of a conversation between a job applicant and a representative of an employer which is conducted to assess whether the applicant should be hired. Interviews are one of the most popularly used devices for ...

ing on ''The Apprentice''. He is the only interviewer to have appeared in this role in every series of the programme. On 27 April 2015, it was announced that Littner had replaced

Nick Hewer Nicholas Radbourn Hewer (born 17 February 1944) is a retired English television presenter, company director (2010) and former public relations consultant. From 2005 to 2014, he appeared as Alan Sugar's adviser in the British television series ' ...

as Alan Sugar's aide on the show. He started when the 2015 series began on 14 October 2015, and he continues to interview the candidates. He took a hiatus from the programme for its sixteenth series due to injuries sustained from a cycling accident in 2021, with series one winner Tim Campbell taking over for the sixteenth series. Littner returned to the show for the first episode of the seventeenth series, but was not well enough to continue. His place has been taken by Tim Campbell for the following 10 episodes.

Honours

In October 2014, the

University of West London The University of West London (UWL) is a public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and in Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots in 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded, later Ealing Col ...

's Business School was renamed the Claude Littner Business School in appreciation of his contributions to the university. It was opened and unveiled by long-time associate and colleague, Alan Sugar. In April 2015 the University of West London appointed him a visiting Professor.

Personal life

Since 1976 Littner has been married to Thelma. They have two sons Anthony and Alex and five grandchildren. In 1997, at the age of 48, Littner was diagnosed with

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tire ...

and was given six months to live. Littner renounced American citizenship in 2018. Littner endorsed the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

during the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

References

External links

Bio at Business Week
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Littner, Claude 1949 births Living people British businesspeople Tottenham Hotspur F.C. directors and chairmen The Apprentice (British TV series) Businesspeople from New York City American emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle British people of Austrian-Jewish descent British Jews Former United States citizens