Throughout his life, he’s been on the receiving end of the odd antisemitic remark, but nothing in comparison to what he thinks his grandchildren today are facing. “It’s a problem I wish would go away. It’s a problem I wish we never had,” he says. But it is a problem that has followed the family for generations.
Littner’s Austrian father, Harry, and grandfather, Theodor, escaped the Vélodrome d'Hiver Roundup in 1942 Nazi-occupied Paris by fleeing to Portugal, then to Cuba, before finally reaching New York, with the help of forged documents. Along the way, they were reunited with Littner’s grandmother, Anna, who had hidden her most valuable jewellery in her bra.
The Harry Littner Hall in Golders Green Synagogue, where Littner’s father attended between 1957 until his passing in 2005, is dedicated to his memory. Today, The Apprentice icon is still a member. “I've got a real, strong feeling about being Jewish. I would never not claim to be Jewish. I’m proud.”
UK viewers of the hit BBC One show have missed watching Littner since he exited his role as Sugar’s right-hand-man after a severe e-bike accident in 2021, where he almost lost his leg. The business mogul has dropped in for the dreaded interviews, but nothing is as fulfilling as being Sugar’s on-screen aide, he tells me, where he really gets to dissect the candidates over 11 weeks.
And what does the role of Sugar’s aide require? “Grit.”
Claude Littner, Lord Sugar's former aide on The Apprentice and trustee of WIZO UK (Blake Ezra Photography 2024)[Missing Credit]
Littner, it is true, is nothing but. His career is a sequence of extraordinary turnarounds, where the tycoon has transformed a venture on its last legs into a money-making machine with lethal precision. From speaking to Littner for two hours, it’s abundantly clear why Sugar trusted him wholeheartedly with his empire.
But where did he start? Littner’s first gig was a truly “terrible” job in Lucas CAV, maker of diesel fuel injection equipment. There, the staff were treated deplorably by some of the then management. “It was a great experience because I told myself if I ever get into a position of power, where I'm in charge of people, I am never, ever going to behave like this.”
He then secured a job at Unilever as a management accountant. On leaving, he was hungry to challenge himself in business, and so started a chain of menswear accessory concessions in Burton and former Oxford Street department store Bournes in the early 80s. Despite little to zero knowledge about fashion, his business took off and he quickly started making money.
The next few years were a bit of trial and error. One attempt to open a stand-alone sportswear shop backfired when Littner found he wasn’t managing to sell any stock. He decided to shut it down, leaving him £200,000 in debt to the bank and his uncle who had invested in the venture.
But he got lucky. A local businessman offered to take the shop off his hands “for a good price”, with the intention of transforming it into a sports apparel retailer, with the top floor reserved as a private space for “adult entertainment”.
The men shook hands, cash was handed over and Littner ran away and banked the money, never returning to see what the man had done with the place.
His first run-in with Sugar (after many successful years being the chairman of Les Trois Lords in France) is well-known. The East End-born magnate wasn’t looking for another big macher and just wanted someone he could rely on. And most importantly, someone who was a fluent French speaker. Littner didn’t even know who he was meeting before the first and only interview for the job. “My eyes lit up when I saw Alan Sugar, but his eyes didn't light up when he saw me.”
Littner began monologuing about his impressive CV and before long, Sugar murmured “bored” before exiting the office. A moment later, his marketing director entered the room and said: “You’re hired.” (Sugar was actually been referring to the fact that he would speak to “the board”.)
He was hired that same day as chairman and chief executive of Amstrad International, based in Paris.
Of course, the UK’s The Apprentice followed the American version of the same name, starring Donald Trump. “I think it's unbelievable, the fact that he became president,” says Littner, who renounced his American citizenship in 2018 because he has lived in England all his life and it felt like an anachronism to still hold it.
“He sold them a lie. He sold them a dream and he's now living the dream - second time president and all these executive orders. God knows what he’s doing.” He has, however, been pleased by Trump’s stance on Israel. “Thank God for that. Long may it continue, but the thing is, he can change with the wind.”
The Jewish State is close to Littner’s heart. Not only does he have family living there, but fond memories of going on tour as a 17-year-old. That’s why, since 2020, the entrepreneur has been a trustee of WIZO, Israel’s largest social welfare organisation, responsible for providing shelters for vulnerable women and children and training programmes for immigrants.
Another cause close to his heart is Blood Cancer UK, where Littner serves as a trustee, following his own diagnosis with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1997, when he was given the shocking news that he had just six months to live at the age of 48. “It’s very painful for me to talk about it and it was devastating for the family,” he says, visibly moved.
His sister Tina saved his life with a stem cell transplant, and Littner continued working even when his body rejected the treatment, and he became sick with Graft-versus-host disease. Board meetings would be spent huddled in a small room with the heater on while Littner shivered an overcoat.
But after decades of pushing himself to the limit in business, today he can focus on his family, philanthropy and the Claude Littner Business School at the University of West London. “I'm engaged in work that is bringing me no income whatsoever, but it’s meaningful.”
And even though he is no longer Sugar’s on-screen aide, Littner hasn’t hung up his judging-hat just yet. As a trustee of WIZO, he will serve as a judge for its inaugural Entrepreneur Awards, where six business innovators will be crowned winners for driving positive social change and will receive a trip to Israel in 2026.
If you consider yourself a budding entrepreneur making a real difference, you have until May 30, 2025 for someone to nominate you. Claude will be waiting.
To enter the WIZO UK Entrepreneur Awards 2025, click here
