Reuben Singh

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Reuben Singh, (born 20 September 1976, Manchester, England), is a British entrepreneur, who first became well known in the mid-1990s for his Miss Attitude retail chain and then later for his business support services company alldaypa.

In early 2005 he courted controversy with a high profile court case and a series of newspaper investigations that raised questions about his wealth. In October 2007 he was declared bankrupt on the petition of Bank of Scotland. Singh was automatically discharged from bankruptcy after one year, as is standard procdure in the UK, in October 2008. ^[1].

He has held many public appointments and was invited by Prime Minister Tony Blair to serve on a government advisory panel on small businesses & on the Competitiveness Council ^[2]. He served on the seven man government task force which was asked to review and then report on the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport. ^[3] and was appointed as a founding member of the government's Small Business Council^[4]. Alongside Sir Alan Sugar and Sir Richard Branson he has also been appointed by Gordon Brown as one of the five UK Ambassadors for Entrepreneurship^{[citation needed]}.

On 26 January 2003 The World Economic Forum honoured him^[5][6] as one of the "Global Leaders of Tomorrow" (GLT)^[7][8] in Davos. On 13 October 2003 his portrait was included in the UK National Portrait Gallery, which houses portraits of historically important and famous British people

In May 2005 he was invited to Dubai by His Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum the Dubai Crown Prince to address an audience of over 1000 business leaders & Entrepreneurs. ^[9]. In 2003 the MIT Boston Technology Review Magazine voted him one of the World's top Innovators in their prestigious review.^[10]

His charitable work includes working to support HRH Prince Charles Prince's Trust working with young entrepreneurs and supporting interfaith partnerships in the UK.^{[11][12][13][14]} .

Contents 1 Early years 2 Dotcom era 3 Celebrity status 4 Financial Controversy 5 Recent Times 6 Quotations 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early years

Reuben Singh was born into a wealthy family who ran a large importing business, Sabco, and had business interests in Canada. They came to England in the 1970s and had a family home in Poynton, an affluent village in Cheshire.

His first business, Miss Attitude, was a retail chain which sold girls' accessories (such as hair clips, cosmetics, etc) which opened in 1995 in the Manchester Arndale Centre.

Almost overnight, dozens of stores opened up across the UK, and within a short space of time there were hundreds. He started to appear in the press with stories of this success. Early reports cited his wealth at around £10 million, all this while he was studying for his A-Levels at William Hulme's Grammar School in Manchester.

In 1999, Miss Attitude was sold for a reported sum of £22 million pounds, bringing his wealth to around £45 million.^[15] The buyer later claimed that the actual sum was just £1 (see Financial Controversy)

[edit] Dotcom era

In 1999, he launched the support services business and brand alldaypa.com, a 24-hour virtual PA / secretary service using $6m of his money ^[16]. alldayPA provides 24hr call answering & secretarial services to business based in the UK as well as other call centre support services. The business quickly became highly acclaimed for its service and received several awards including the National Business Award for New Business of The Year sponsored by Microsoft. ^[17]

Soon after this company was launched, Singh's spokeswoman was claiming the company was worth £100m, although this would later be challenged due to the fact the company was in fact in massive debt. .^[18][19] The overinflated value of the company was symptomatic of the Dot Com Bubble, which commonly saw new companies that seemed to grow quickly then fail, revealing their exaggerated values and showing no evidence of being profitable. However in the case of alldaypa the company has over the years developed into a highly successful and profitable business.^{[citation needed]}

After suffering initial losses of over £3m the company was bailed out in 2004 by Singh's Father who bought the company further to crystallising the debt owed to him by the company. The company records and the administrator's report later revealed that Singh had in fact lost several million pounds.^[20].

Since 2004 the alldaypa has reported year on year growth and the company's financial statements have recorded profits each year and has built up partnerships with multi national companies such as T-Mobile ^[21] and MBNA credit card.

[edit] Celebrity status

Singh regularly appeared in printed media and on television, and was once hailed by some as the British Bill Gates. He enjoyed the comparison, and stated in interviews that he aimed to beat Bill Gate's record by becoming the world's youngest self-made billionaire by the time he is 30 (although this was not achieved by September 2006 when he turned 30).

He was often pictured alongside a Bentley Continental, a £270,000 vehicle, which certainly seemed to support the claims of immense wealth.

His entry in the 1998 Guinness Book of Records as the world's youngest self-made millionaire with a fortune of £27.5m (the entry was subsequently disqualified) helped, as did featuring in various rich lists such as The Sunday Times,^[22] and Fortune. He has not appeared in any rich lists for several years since.

He made many television appearances for programmes such as BBC Hardtalk^[23] and the Esther Rantzen show, and offered his services as a motivational guest speaker to give talks on how to be a success.

He also won many awards for his business and entrepreneurship, such as the National Business Awards 2002,^[24] Microsoft New Business of the Year 2002, The Times 500 "Most Powerful under 30-year old in Britain", Times 500 Most Powerful Individuals as "Most Powerful under 30-year old in Britain".^[25]. In more recent years, however, he has not received such accolades or appointments, and seems to have withdrawn from the media spotlight.

[edit] Financial Controversy

In 2002, an article in the Manchester Evening News - followed a few days later by an article in the Financial Mail - contained damning information regarding his business ventures.^[26] The articles called him little more than a fantasist and that his wealth and business success was considerably less than he claimed. It also revealed that the buyer of Miss Attitude, American financier Gary Klesch, claimed to have bought the debt-laden business for £1. This was later revealed to be incorrect as the buyer also settled debts worth millions of pounds for Singh as part of the deal^{[citation needed]}.

Singh himself told Sathnam Sanghera of the Financial Times that "these stories are just rumours based on jealousy and are a total misrepresentation", adding that a confidentiality clause prohibited him from discussing the matter.^[27]

He then, suffered somewhat of a backlash from the media. The Manchester Evening News, which had previously printed positive stories about Singh, began to run negative pieces and sought to expose any discrepancies in his affairs.^[28][29] The paper alleged that he had used the press to his advantage, using inaccurate reports about his business prowess to further inflate his reputation as a successful entrepreneur.^[30]

MP Graham Stringer called for tighter regulations after Singh was able to gain a position on a Government advisory panel without any prior checks.^[31]

Another company set up by Singh, a health food company called Robson & Steinberg, folded after less than a year of trading, with debts of £250,000.^[32]

Questions were raised about what Singh called the 'Reuben Singh Group of Companies.' According to Singh, these were 12 trading entities dealing in currency trading, property, retail and construction. However a search in the Britain, Companies House listed only two British companies with any net assets of £1000 and £100. The other five British companies that Singh was listed as director had never filed any accounts but concern was raised on a £2.64m payment that Singh paid overseas from one of the companies.^[33]

Further problems arose in relation to a multimillion pound overdraft which Singh had guaranteed. In 2004 he was sued by the Royal Bank of Scotland, with judge Michael Kershaw QC ordering Singh to pay the bank £1,229,966 for an overdraft and their legal costs. The judge commented, "(The banker) was, I think, to some extent a victim of Mr Singh's personality as well as Mr Singh's lies."^[34]

[edit] Recent Times

On 19th October 2007, Singh was made bankrupt (for a reported £11.8m), on the petition of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Singh received an automatic discharge from bankruptcy after 12 months, as is standard practice under the UK Insolvency Rules. As per the law in England and Wales his debts were discharged for the period prior to the date of the bankruptcy order. ^[35]

[edit] Quotations

• "No one backed me or invested in me when I was starting out... If Reuben Singh at 17 had found the Reuben Singh of today, imagine how that could have helped me."^[36]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• http://www.bsingh.dsl.pipex.com/khalsa/reuben.htm
• http://www.4-small-businesses.co.uk/top-small-businesses-idea-003.html
• http://www.newscast.co.uk/media/mediapreview_big.jsp?js=false&id=16865
• http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp19036
• http://www.alldaypa.com
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020902/world.htm#5
• http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Singh_Reuben_20877243.aspx
• http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/ReferencesView.aspx?PersonID=20877243&lastName=Singh&firstName=Reuben&searchSource=page&page=1
• http://www.newstatesman.com/200310270017

Persondata
NAME	Singh, Reuben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH	1976-09-20
PLACE OF BIRTH	Manchester, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH