Clifford Martin Stanford (born Spiegel; 12 October 1954 – 24 February 2022) was a British

internet entrepreneur An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some CEOs ...

from

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

, and the co-founder of

Demon Internet Demon Internet was a British Internet service provider, initially an independent business, later operating as a brand of Vodafone. It was one of the UK's earliest ISPs, offering dial-up Internet access services from 1 June 1992. According to th ...

, the first

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

in the United Kingdom for individual subscribers.

Early life

Stanford was born on 12 October 1954 and grew up in

, Essex. His father was a civil servant, but left the family when Stanford was 11; his mother was a book-keeper. By the time he was 14, Stanford was beginning to show a flair for business. He devised a marketing scheme to win a newspaper sales competition at his part-time job. He had learned book-keeping by helping his mother with her work and left school, aged 16, to join an accountancy firm.

Career

Demon Internet

In the early 1990s

Pipex Pipex ( ) was the United Kingdom's first commercial Internet service provider (ISP). It was formed in 1990 and helped to develop the ISP market in the UK. In 1992 it began operating a 64k transatlantic leased line and built a connection to the U ...

began marketing

leased line A leased line is a private telecommunications circuit between two or more locations provided according to a commercial contract. It is sometimes also known as a private circuit, and as a data line in the UK. Typically, leased lines are used by ...

internet connections for £10,000 a year. After recruiting 200 subscribers willing to pay a "tenner a month" for

dial-up internet access Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

, in 1992 Stanford co-founded Demon Internet, the first

in the United Kingdom for individual subscribers. Based in

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon. It is ...

, north London, and initially equipped with eight modems and a single leased line, the company grew quickly, particularly after the appearance of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

in 1993. By 1996 Demon Internet had 50,000 subscribers and more than 4,000 modems.

Redbus Investments

Following the sale of Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom in 1998 for £66 million, Stanford founded Redbus Investments, a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm involved in film production and a variety of other ventures. Redbus Investments provided seed capital for a number of investments including Redbus Interhouse and

Redbus Film Distribution Lions Gate UK Limited (formerly Redbus Film Distribution, and briefly known as Helkon SK between 2001 and 2003) is the British subsidiary of the American film company, Lionsgate Studios. Founded in 1999 by Simon Franks and Zygi Kamasa, Redbus ...

. After a boardroom fall-out at Redbus Interhouse, he resigned in June 2002. In 2003, whilst attempting to gather information about possible wrongdoings by the board of Redbus Interhouse, Stanford discovered and exposed more than £34m of assets of

Dame Shirley Porter Dame Shirley, Lady Porter DBE (''née'' Cohen; born 29 November 1930) is a British politician who led Westminster City Council in London from 1983 to 1991, representing the Conservative Party. She is the daughter and heiress of Sir Jack Cohe ...

. This resulted directly in her repaying £12m to Westminster Council. In September 2005 Stanford was convicted under the

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (citation of United Kingdom legislation, c. 23) (RIP or RIPA) is an Act of parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillanc ...

of intercepting emails belonging to John Porter, son of Dame Shirley and then chairman of Redbus. Despite pleading guilty, Stanford claimed that what he had done was legal as "someone on the inside ... put in a redirect". He was given a

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

, ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 and, in a later hearing, was denied

leave to appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

Personal life

Stanford had a son, Tony, and from 2000 was in a relationship with

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (born 7 March 1968) is an American/German author, writing science fiction and fantasy as Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, and aviation non-fiction as Sylvia Wrigley. She grew up in Los Angeles, USA and Germany. She is currently resid ...

. Stanford died from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

in Estonia, on 24 February 2022, at the age of 67.

Chess

Stanford was a chess enthusiast. He sponsored a Redbus knockout Grandmaster chess event each Easter in Southend since 1999. Following the death of his uncle, Jack Spiegel, who had for many years organised the annual Southend Easter chess congress, Stanford inaugurated a Jack Spiegel Memorial Invitational Tournament, also at Easter and in Southend. The first Redbus event and the first Spiegel Memorial event were each won by

James Plaskett Harold James Plaskett (born 18 March 1960) is a British chess grandmaster and writer. Biography Early life and personal life Plaskett was born in Dhekelia, Cyprus, on 18 March 1960 and was educated at Bedford Modern School, England. In the ...

References

Reference bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanford, Cliff 1954 births 2022 deaths English company founders People from Southend-on-Sea