Sara Dhada
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The following is a list of candidates from the British reality television series The Apprentice. The programme began in 2005 and a fourth series began in March, 2008.

Candidates are listed alphabetically and are categorised into individual series. Where a date of birth is not provided, the age given will be that of when the series aired.

Series One

Main article: List of The Apprentice candidates (UK Series One)

Series Two

Main article: The Apprentice (UK Series Two)

Syed Ahmed

Syed Ahmed (born 1975, Sylhet, Bangladesh) is a self-made British businessman and director of IT recruitment consultancy firm IT People. He claims to be "street-wise" and "a self-styled business bad boy". Early in the series he came to attention for his repeated attempts to ingratiate himself with Sir Alan by claiming to come from a similar background (which was subtly acknowledged in the following seasons when Sir Alan told the candidates he didn't want to hear anything about them coming from the same background as him). Syed was fired in week 10 after he tried to organise a fun day on a cruise ship. His many mistakes included not properly recording the names and room numbers of passengers entering a raffle. Syed had a romantic relationship with fellow contestant Michelle Dewberry and she fell pregnant. In August 2006 they lost the baby, who died before birth. Syed is now CEO at SA Vortex Limited which is developing patented environmentally friendly hand and body drying technology.

Nargis Ara

Nargis Ara has an honours degree in pharmacy and is a PhD student. She was the most highly educated of all the contestants, although her experience lies mainly in pharmaceutical research. She was fired in week 2 after deciding it would be a good idea to use cats as the theme for a children's charity calendar, and displaying appalling sales skills during the task. It has since been revealed by contestant Alexa Tilley that the team were given no choice in this matter, this fact was not revealed to the television audience.^{citation needed}

Ruth Badger

Ruth Badger (born 1978) implies that she has 3 GCSEs (in week 11 she stated that she and Michelle had 5 GCSEs between them, and no degrees and this demonstrates how they are self made) and was previously employed as a sales manager. Ruth was the runner-up, reaching the final.¹

Karen Bremner

Karen Bremner (born November 6, 1971) obtained a diploma in legal practice and Bachelor of Laws and was previously employed as a lawyer. She was born in Canada. Karen was considered to be the shock firing of this series when she was dismissed in Episode 3 with the line 'I don't need another corporate lawyer.' Karen had a number of radio and television appearances and was the business correspondent for Scottish talk radio station Talk107. Karen now owns a successful boutique, karenB, based in Broughty Ferry in Scotland.

Jo Cameron

Jo Cameron was previously self-employed, and prior to that had worked at specialising in improving the position of women in male dominated industries. She also has a career as a professional speaker and is a regular media commentator. ² In 2008, she was the winner of a special charity edition of The Weakest Link, featuring previous candidates of The Apprentice. She beat Series 3 candidate Kristina Grimes in the final round, after only one question was answered correctly between the two of them.

Michelle Dewberry

Michelle Dewberry has 2 GCSEs as well as professional qualifications. She currently lives in London but her roots are in Hull. From her first job working the checkouts in Kwik Save, she rose through the business ranks in various different firms to become a global project manager. She claimed to already earn the £100,000 salary offered by the show from her consultancy in telecommunications offshoring, and said that she wanted to become Sir Alan's apprentice for the experience rather than the money. Michelle went on to win the series, beating rival Ruth Badger in the final. Michelle's first assignment for Sir Alan was to launch Xenon Green, a business that disposes of unwanted computer equipment. However, she and Sir Alan parted company in September 2006. She had a romantic relationship with fellow contestant Syed Ahmed and became pregnant by him. In August 2006 they lost the baby, who died before birth.

Ansell Henry

Ansell Henry left school at the age of 16 to join Millwall F.C. and was on their books as a professional footballer. However, injury cut short his career and he found employment as a door-to-door salesman. He was born in South London but currently lives in Brighton. He says that he is a good all-rounder and gets on well with people. As one of the least educated contestants he joined the competition for a challenge. On the show Ansell gained a reputation as a "nice guy", reaching the final three before being dismissed.

Samuel Judah

Samuel Judah has a degree in manufacturing engineering and his previous employment was as a product developer. Before appearing on The Apprentice he spent 11 years working for the Ford Motor Company. His self description states that he is "demanding and domineering but the results are what count".

Tuan Le

Tuan Le (generally pronounced Dun) was born January 11, 1979. He has 9 GCSEs and 2 A Levels, and before the show worked as a financial advisor. He had previously worked for the Nationwide Building Society, eventually becoming a financial consultant. Tuan's website

Sharon McAllister

Sharon McAllister (born June 1, 1975) has a BA in Corporate Communication and worked previously as a business lecturer. On March 5, 2008 Sharon launched sit1.tv, Scotland's first Internet television station. Sharon is famous around the Stirling area for once dating local celebrity and D.J. Stuart Chalmers. Sharon was also well known for her stylish outfits and would regularly wear tight figure-hugging leather trousers which made her a real style icon.

Mani Sandher

Mani Sandher has a BSc in physics and was previously employed as a management consultant. He lives in London and admits that he "can be a perfectionist". He has set up two profitable businesses although he is now a silent partner in one of them.

Ben Stanberry

Ben Stanberry has a master's degree in law and worked previously as an IT consultant.

Alexa Tilley

Alexa Tilley was born in London on September 22, 1977 and prior to the show was a management consultant. She entered the contest for the business opportunity and the chance to learn from Alan Sugar. Although Alexa has a BA in economics from Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, she was most notable for her failings in the economics of a successful pizza business. Alexa is employed by French IT company Capgemini.

Paul Tulip

Paul Tulip (born October 1, 1979) has a degree in Business and Sport and had a career as a head hunter. Paul's website

Series Three

Main article: The Apprentice (UK Series Three)

Simon Ambrose

Simon Ambrose was educated at the independent Westminster School before gaining an MA in Economics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first. It is reported that Simon became a member of Mensa at age 13 with an IQ of 174. He describes himself as "sexy, competitive, proud and ambitious" who does "his best work under pressure". Since being made redundant from the Investment Bank Credit Suisse, he has tried his hand at a number of internet-based entrepreneurial ideas.³ Percy Ambrose, his paternal grandfather is a jeweller and self made millionaire. His Father, Russell Ambrose, has many business interests with an annual turnover of £50 million. He was winner of series 3.⁴

Ghazal Asif

Ghazal Asif is a 23-year-old Glaswegian and is the youngest candidate; indeed her age proved to be a cause of concern to Sir Alan. She speaks five languages and planned to establish her own business in fashion if she didn't win the programme. Her ambition is to be a millionaire by the time she’s 30. She was fired in week 8.⁵ Ghazal Asif has now launched her fashion clothing label Ghazals Couture.⁶

Ghazal Asif's Official Web Site

Tre Azam

Tre Azam, was born on August 15, 1979. He is second into a family of seven and is described as "forthright, opinionated and a bit of a maverick", started work aged 10, building PCs in his father’s factory. He has worked in various countries in Europe and Asia, before running his family company’s US operations. ⁷

In his spare time, Tre enjoys kickboxing, martial arts and philosophy. He was once involved in a car crash in France, after falling asleep at the wheel, which left him in a wheelchair for nine months.⁸ Although he has metal plates in his spine and legs he walks without difficulty, and is married with a son called Ayaan.

He attacked the programme for editing him badly. ⁹

Tre also appeared on Big Brother's Big Mouth and was on the green carpet for the IIFA Awards 2007, that took place in Britain. Tre Azam has posted videos of his opinions on popular video website; YouTube And he now has a column on the Apprentice website, commenting on the Series 4 episodes every week. He criticised many of the series 4 contestants as lacking business acumen or integrity.¹⁰

Tre presents a regular Saturday afternoon radio talk show programme on London's LBC 97.3 and is currently working on a cartoon series called Beats, Rhymes and Life.¹¹

Tre Azam's Official Web Site

Gerri Blackwood

Gerri Blackwood was offered a job with MI5 on the same day as she found out her application for The Apprentice was successful. The 33-year-old says “It’s easy to have confidence when you are a big fish in your own pond, but to suddenly be thrown into a sea of sharks you have a bit of a reality check”.¹²

After her final episode was shown on television, Gerri told The Daily Star that the female members of the show were forced to shower together. The article also claimed that Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford fed the candidates misleading information so they would fail the tasks and that Sir Alan Sugar's rants were re-filmed to make them look better.

Paul Callaghan

Paul Callaghan was educated at the independent King Edward VI School in Southampton in Southern England. He was a junior infantry officer who saw active service in Iraq, and ended his service as a Lieutenant. He said: “My lack of commercial experience might be a weakness but my leadership and organisational qualities are definite strengths,” he claims.¹³ This was disproved by his performance as project manager in week 6, and was fired for being "a total shambles". He had a close relationship with fellow candidate Katie Hopkins during the show.¹⁴

Ifti Chaudhri

Ifti Chaudhri built his successful tile business from scratch, has ambitions of owning his own leisure centre and is currently applying to join the Tae Kwon Do team for the 2012 Olympics. “When you can break bricks with your hands you believe in your head you can do anything, and in business I take on the same ethic.” he says.¹⁵ He left the show in the second week after telling Sir Alan that he was missing his family.

Kristina Grimes

Kristina Grimes (born 31 October 1970) is a 37-year-old businesswoman from Julianstown, County Meath, Ireland.¹⁶ She was the runner up to Simon Ambrose, in the third series of The Apprentice, which finished on 13 June 2007. This was widely regarded as a surprise, as Kristina had been considered the bookmakers hot favourite to be hired by Sir Alan.¹⁷ Grimes was promoted to the final, when original finalist Katie Hopkins with whom she had a personal conflict, pulled out.¹⁸

Grimes gave birth to a son, Graeme Grimes, at the age of 17 whilst living in the Republic of Ireland. Of her pregnancy, she has said: "At the time I had my son, girls were sent away to hide their pregnancy. Once they gave birth, they gave up their babies and went back as if they had never been pregnant. I was the only one who kept my child. In my mind I felt I had to live by my mistakes; not that I felt Graeme was a mistake."¹⁹

Since then she went on to achieve a degree in mathematics.²⁰ She currently lives in Manchester whilst her son Graeme is attending university in Durham.

She formerly worked as pharmaceuticals manager before appearing on The Apprentice.²⁰ After leaving The Apprentice, Grimes received 140 job offers. She chose to become the investment sales director with Isle of Man-based property company Dandara.²¹

Subsequently, Kristina has founded The KGJC Partnership with former Apprentice Jenny Celerier. The company promotes excellence in business performance.

Katie Hopkins

Born to Roy and Anona Hopkins in 1976,²² Katie Hopkins was sponsored through university by the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and claims she can ‘out press up’ most men.²³ Her goal is "to be CEO of a large global brand builder by 40".²⁴ She is a single parent from Devon with two daughters.²² She claimed to be the highest paid candidate on £90,000 a year (since denied by her ex-employers, who dismissed her after the series was aired), and is a partner in her ex-husbands brand building firm.²⁵

Katie became memorable on the programme for her amusing comments to camera about other contestants. These include calling Naomi Lay a dog,²⁶ and making fun of Adam Hosker's North England background.²⁷ She has also mocked the choice of clothes and fondness of fake tan of fellow candidate Kristina Grimes.²⁸

She hit the headlines as part of the first on-screen romantic relationship to feature on The Apprentice with fellow candidate Paul Callaghan.²⁹

Katie has become something of a pantomime villain since her time on the programme, especially on internet forums,³⁰ although, Sir Alan Sugar has come to her defence.³¹ She was also mocked on 'The Friday Night Project' in their 'Friday night news' segment. They reported on how Katie Hopkins had 'got the sack', referring to her being sacked from her job because of details of her private life which were revealed in the tabloids. Alan Carr commented on this saying "Normally when Katie gets the sack she grabs it in her right hand and rams it down her throat". Katie herself appeared on the show the next week only to be met with heavy booing from the audience. Alan Carr also told her that she should learn not to 'put out' on a first date. She was a contestant on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here during 2007.

Adam Hosker

Adam Hosker was born on a council estate in Blackburn, Lancashire. He has an ambition is to run an internationally successful company after being one of only a small number of students to graduate University from his comprehensive school, He graduated in Sport Management. He claims to earn three times the average wage of the kids he went to school with. He says “My strengths and my weaknesses are often the same thing – on occasion my confidence can come across as arrogance to those who don't know me. There was wide spread controversy surrounding Adam's exit from the show following a North-South rift with a number of the other contestants, mainly Katie Hopkins and Paul Callaghan. Adam is now a Director in a North West based I.T. Company (I.T. Team Solutions, according to the North West News) after leaving his position as a Sales Manager in a car dealership. An article in a local North West newspaper commented that he is involved in the design of Sport Management Software for use in elite sport. His only regular public appearance is as a match presenter at Blackburn Rovers where he can be seen doing the half time announcements on the pitch.

Andy Jackson

Andy Jackson, a 36-year-old car salesman, is a father of three. His hobbies include playing online poker, buying and selling cars, and trading on eBay. “My passions are winning, winning and winning,” Jackson says.³² Ironically, he was the first contestant to leave the series. Jackson is quoted as saying "We work til—l we bleed" in one of the trailers while holding a group hug of the boys team. This is one of the famous quotes from the show.

Jadine Johnson

Jadine Johnson won a place at university but quit to support her daughter. She moved into banking and was promoted three times in her first year. It was quoted by a reporter in the The Sun that "Jadine enjoys cooking, and debating in her spare time as well as cleaning".³³

The Sun newspaper and mental health charity Mind^{citation needed} criticised the programme for enrolling Jadine, who was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2003. A spokesperson from the BBC, however, said “As a part of the selection process, all candidates are seen by an independent qualified psychologist to assess their suitability for participating in the programme.”³⁴ Jadine was fired in episode nine of the series due to her suffering emotional problems from being separated from her family for so long. Sir Alan spoke highly of her afterwards though, and suggested that she might even have gone on to win the series, had it not been for her forced exit.

Sophie Kain

Sophie Kain has a PhD in Theoretical Physics. She works as a research scientist for an aviation and shipping design company. Kain commented “I can understand the technical side of things but also have vision.”³⁵

Lohit Kalburgi

Lohit Kalburgi, 25, was born in the United Arab Emirates (his parents are of Indian origin) and has been a resident of five different countries. Starting his first company at 16, he says “I would like people to see me as the nice guy. My game plan is to be myself and get on with things”.³⁶ Lohit lasted until Week 11, when he became the first candidate to be fired as a result of the interviews, although he had a narrow escape from firing in Week 9 when Sir Alan thought Lohit most deserved to be fired, but let Jadine go as he felt she was suffering from stress too much to continue. He is the first openly gay Apprentice candidate. The rumours about Lohit's sexuality were confirmed on 'The Apprentice: Beyond the Boardroom' where he appeared with his partner, Amrit 'The Mole' Johal. Since his time on the show Lohit has now launched his own company, a new men's fashion label called PashFash, along with his partner. Launching during London Fashion Week 2007, the debut collection can be seen at the online boutique. [2]. He is currently a design consultant for BT Retail in London.

Rory Laing

Rory Laing was born the youngest of three boys and brought up near Dublin, Ireland his family moving to England aged 5. He was educated at the independent Malvern College, then graduated from Ravensbourne College with a Degree in Product Design and then the University of Bristol with an Msc in Entrepreneurship. Aged 29, he has employed over 400 staff across his three previous companies. These companies were all operating in the events industry predominately supplying staff to the large summer events like Henley Royal Regatta and Royal Ascot. He featured on the 2007 series of the UK version of The Apprentice. Although forced out early, it was his design in the final that allowed the subsequent winner to take the position. Currently he runs The London Zeppelin Company, the company behind the Stella Artois: Star Over London. Having approached the German Airship Company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH eighteen months ago he has gone to set up the project in England. The flights are the first Zeppelin flights offered to the public since The Graf Zeppelin1932. He is now based in London and after the project hopes to work further with Airship technology.

Naomi Lay

Naomi Lay, 26, from Cornwall, was originally a PA and is now a Sales Team Manager for Advertising.com. She has visited Sierra Leone and Russia where her father worked in diamond and gold mining. “People that know me would describe me as loud, motivated, fun, determined, compassionate and energetic”.³⁷

Naomi graduated from University College London with a 2:1 in Modern European studies and is fluent in both French and Spanish after spending time studying at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Complutense University of Madrid.

Naomi was fired from the programme during the tenth episode. Many viewers branded her firing unfair and felt that Simon more deserved to be fired that week for failing to manage the team properly. Sir Alan subsequently acknowledged that her firing might have seemed unfair on the basis of that task, but added that she had never once impressed him in the ten weeks she had lasted, and felt that she had been "incredibly lucky" to get that far without being fired.

After The Apprentice, Lay returned to Cornwall where she was regularly talked about on the local radio station, BBC Radio Cornwall. She was one of the judges on the Radio Cornwall Singing Sensation competition at the Royal Cornwall Show.

Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood is a mother of two and former receptionist who believes she will thrive under Sir Alan’s management. “I admire Sir Alan’s achievements and attitude, I like the way he is with people. Who needs the truth wrapped up with fairy lights? Say it how it is!” she says.³⁸

Wood complained about a situation with Adrian Chiles, host of The Apprentice spin-off show, The Apprentice: You're Fired!. Chiles, who has a distinctive Birmingham accent, asked Wood on the spin-off show whether her Essex accent had been a hindrance. "But how can you pick up on my accent when Sir Alan is sitting across the table," commented Wood. "How can he say that? Essex is fantastic and I'm proud to come from Essex. A lot of people from Essex are very successful. I find it hard to swallow."³⁹

Natalie is now looking into starting up her own bar in her local town.

Series Four

Main article: The Apprentice (UK Series Four)

Raef Bjayou

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Raef Bjayou. (Discuss)

Raef Bjayou, 27, attended the independent Westbrook Hay School in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, and became school captain, followed by the independent Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertford Heath (also in Hertfordshire), after which he attended Exeter University.⁴⁰ He obtained a degree in Politics and History from Exeter University. He is a life member of the Exeter University Debating Society and claims to "have never lost an argument yet". He prides himself on his accent and appearance. His interests include acting, lawn tennis and reading. Raef struggled in the first episode of the series, getting called to the boardroom after misindentifying some fish, but he led his team to victory in the next task and soon became one of the favorites to win.He became popular for his unique appearance, mannerisms, and sayings such as "The spoken word is my tool"⁴¹, as well as his defence of Sara Dhada when she was ganged up on by other candidates in the house⁴². He also earned a lot of praise from Sir Alan Sugar as a "really nice chap", and Raef in turn claims to have an e-mail "rapport" with Sir Alan. Since being dismissed in Week 9 of the show, he has suggested to the press that he would like to pursue a career in the media, and has since appeared in an episode of the comedy panel show, 8 out of 10 Cats. He has now landed a reporting job on Richard and Judy.⁴³ He was a contestant on the second series of The Underdog Show, but was eliminated in the fifth week. He's also auditioning for the 2009 Dancing on Ice.

Raef Bjayou's Official Web Site

Jenny Celerier

Jenny (Jennifer) Celerier is a 36-year-old sales manager and single mother from Western Park in Leicester. She prefers to be known as Jennifer but due to the name confusion with Jennifer Maguire, she was known as Jenny in The Apprentice.

Born and raised in Suffolk, Jennifer began her career working for the Probation Service before returning to De Montfort University to study Marketing.

Prior to her appearance in The Apprentice, Jennifer worked her way up the career ladder ⁴⁴, culminating in her winning a British Excellence in Sales and Marketing Award - the UK's highest level of recognition for sales executives. She also overcame the effects of Meningitis in 2006.

Jennifer was fired in week seven for lying in the boardroom, when she claimed that she did know what Kosher meant, but later inadvertently revealed that she did know what it meant when trying to blame Michael Sophocles for a purchasing error over a Kosher chicken their team was supposed to buy. In the same week she attempted to bribe a supplier into not dealing with the opposing team. While Sir Alan later said that he would not have fired her for this unless it altered the outcome of the task (which it didn't, as the shop turned down the bribe), it helped convince him that she deserved to go.

In more than one episode Jennifer was seen in heated arguments with her fellow contestant Lucinda Ledgerwood (and also Sara Dhada later on in the series), which many viewers saw as verging on bullying. She has been compared to Katie Hopkins from Series 3, and has since been perceived as a villain this season. Soon after firing her, Sir Alan Sugar described her as a snake.

She was a sales representative for The Mark Group - a loft insulation company, which has an office in Beaumont Leys immediately prior to her appearance in The Apprentice.

In the summer of 2008, Jenny teamed up with fellow Apprentice candidate Kristina Grimes to found The KGJC Partnership to promote excellence in business performance.

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown was educated at the independent Our Lady of Sion School in Worthing, West Sussex, and at King's College London. He once ran for president of the Law Society at King's, only to fail in his bid. For his speech in the run for president he sang to the audience, and read his whole speech from a script. He is a 24-year old trainee barrister from west London.⁴⁵ His birth name was simply "Nicholas Brown", but he added his grandmother's name "de Lacy" to add an element of sophistication.⁴⁶ He was fired in week one after pricing lobsters for four times less than what they should have been selling for. During the boardroom that saw him fired he committed what was seen as one of the biggest boardroom gaffes ever when he told Sir Alan that he felt unable to get on with people who like football, evidently forgetting Sugar's former role as Tottenham Hotspur chairman. On the 29th of May 2008, Nicholas' leg was crushed after a lorry reversed into a wall which then fell on him. He has needed several operations on the leg and will remain on crutches until October.⁴⁷ As a result, he was unable to attend the filming of The Apprentice: You're Hired along with the other candidates. He owns a website which features his artwork. [3]

Sara Dhada

Sara Dhada, born 1982, is an international car saleswoman and barrister who describes herself as a "true example of pure class and elegance". She is from Oadby in Leicestershire. She went to school at Beauchamp College in Oadby, and has a BA Law and Economics degree and LLM in Law from the University of Leicester. In Week 6, Sara was the victim of some finger-pointing both in the boardroom and after from other candidates who felt she didn't pull her weight on the task. She was fired from the series on Week 8, after her team, led by Helene, lost the Wedding Fair task. In the after-show interview, Dhada stated that she did not believe she was responsible for the loss, but deserved to be fired based on her poor defence of herself in the boardroom.

Lucinda Ledgerwood

Lucinda Ledgerwood, 31, is a risk manager from Edinburgh, although was born in Singapore, and comes from a wealthy background.⁴⁸ She has a BSc in Psychology and Neuroscience from Manchester University.⁴⁹ Her dress style has been criticised heavily by The Daily Mail,⁵⁰ but praised by The Guardian.⁵¹ Fellow candidates Lee, Raef and Claire have praised her management style on numerous occasions. She reputedly earns £120,000 a year as a contractor, greater than the prize wage for the show, but claims not to be motivated by money. She was fired on week 11 because Sir Alan thought her too 'zany', and because she had doubts about fitting into the job. Lucinda's first job was with Ernst & Young. She joined Ernst & Young on 9th October 1998, and has also worked for Merril Lynch. She was notable on the programme for her colourful wardrobe and being the victim of office bullying from other candidates (especially Jenny Celerier and Helene Speight), but later emerged as a highly capable and popular project manager. Along with James Max, she is the most successful candidate in the history of the programme, winning eight out of ten tasks, and coming fourth overall as a semi-finalist (Helene and Alex finished joint-third in the final). Perceived by much of the audience as a standout candidate, Nick Hewer praised her on The Apprentice: The Final Five as "a gutsy girl, in a quiet way". Margaret Mountford also gave her much praise, saying "I think Lucinda is a lot better than she appears to have been so far - hats and cleavage or no hats and cleavage."⁵² She also received much praise from former runner-up Ruth Badger in her (Ruth's) appearance on the You're Fired! show. On The Apprentice: Why I fired them, Sir Alan Sugar praised Lucinda as having "exceptional skill", and felt that she would have been "fantastic" in the role of working for him, but explained that he did not feel that she would have been willing to apply her mind to the job. Since leaving the programme, Lucinda has expressed interest in a career in the media and in herbal medicine⁵³, which she studies part-time at Napier University. She has also served as a BBC assistant presenter at Royal Ascot 2008⁵⁴, and as a cover host for Danny Baker's slot on BBC Radio London 94.9.⁵⁵ She is currently in discussion with a number of production companies and works on behalf of the Prince's trust⁵⁶. She can currently be seen as a contestant on Celebrity Scissorhands.

Jennifer Maguire

Jennifer Maguire is a 27-year old marketing consultant, originally from Dublin, who says that when she first ran an office, she made £60,000 in six months with no training,⁵⁷. She described herself as "the best saleswoman in Europe at the moment.⁵⁸ She was fired in week 7. She went on to star in RTÉ's reality television stunner Fáilte Towers.

Lee McQueen

Lee McQueen is a 30-year old recruitment sales manager from Princes Risborough, where he lives in a £500,000 house with his girlfriend Nicola Jellyman (born c. 1980). They have been together for nine years. Born in Perivale, London, he is the son of a milkman. He went to the Queensmead School (comprehensive) in South Ruislip. He bought his first house at the age of 18 and then went on to buy another one for his mother. His parents split when he was 17 and has since had little contact with his father. His first job was as a Catering Manager at the prestigious Harrow School. Recently he has been working in the recruitment sector, specifically IT.

He aggressively berated Sara for her alleged lack of input in Week 6 despite not even being part of her team. He often says "Now that's what I'm talking about!". He is also notable for his "reverse pterodactyl" impressions, which he often uses in order to attract people's attention. During the interview stages in week eleven, he gave Paul Kemsley (one of the interviewers) a performance of this impression. It had also emerged that he had lied on his CV by claiming to have studied at Thames Valley University for two years when he had in fact dropped out after four months. Although this was brought up as a potential issue by Sir Alan, he was chosen to be Sir Alan's apprentice in series 4 in 2008.

On July 1, 2008, Lee phoned in sick on his first day of work as Sir Alan's new apprentice.⁵⁹

Lindi Mngaza

Lindiwe Elissa Mngaza, born January 1985, is a business liaison manager with an NVQ in Customer Services. Born in Bury, of Zimbabwean father and South African 'royal' Zulu woman. She moved to Birmingham, aged three, living in Northfield and attended the Kings Norton Girls' School. She then studied Performing Arts at Solihull College, whilst starting a business at the age of 17, which she ran for two years. At 19, she worked for Phones 4U. She now has her own house in Bromsgrove.⁶⁰ Her role model is fellow dyslexic Richard Branson - she admires his entrepreneurial achievements.⁶¹ She was fired in week five, she was disappointed by this, saying she did not have time to "showcase her skills".⁶²

In November of 2008 Mngaza was accused by BBC's Watchdog programme of pyramid selling.⁶³

Kevin Shaw

Kevin Mark Shaw (born 1983 in Bath) is an area manager for the Halifax who lives in Woking. He went to the Norton Hill School in Midsomer Norton. He started work at the NatWest in Wells, becoming a bank manager by the age of 19. He currently works for Abbey National in Woking. He joined the show because he's long had a dream that he would earn £100,000 a year by the age of 25. He was fired in week 6, after his efforts at leading his team in designing greetings cards resulted in a heavy defeat, and he was accused in the boardroom of letting Jenny force her ideas across and take control of the task. It was suggested in that week's You're Fired that Kevin might have been able to save himself if he'd taken Jenny back into the boardroom instead of Sara and Claire, but Sir Alan subsequently admitted that if Kevin had bought Jenny back, he would probably have fired both of them. During the time he was in the show, Shaw's fellow candidates and outside commentators all mention that he looked distinctly like Little Britain 's Matt Lucas.He drives a Porsche Boxster but wants a better car.⁶⁴

Simon Smith

Simon Smith is a senior satellite television engineer who despite nine years service in the Royal Artillery and a self-avowed IQ of 170 ⁶⁵ only reached the most junior Non-Commissioned Officer rank of Lance Bombadier; a rank that, in his own words, carried "massive responsibility" ⁶⁶. He specialised as a surveyor.⁶⁷ He was fired "with regret" in week four, as Sir Alan thought he was efficient but out of his depth.

Michael Sophocles

Michael Sophocles was educated at the independent Highgate School in North London. He is a 22-year old telesales executive.⁶⁸ He has been the subject of some controversy, firstly by being a self-confessed "arrogant" person, and secondly, most notably, for claiming to be "a good Jewish boy" on his application to the show, but under closer questioning not knowing either the meaning of "kosher" or the common Hebrew toast "L'Chaim" (translated 'to life' as per the Fiddler on the Roof song of that name)⁶⁹. The ineptitude of Sophocles, who read classics and history at Edinburgh University, prompted Margaret Mountford (herself Cambridge-educated) to opine that "Edinburgh isn't what it used to be"⁷⁰. He was perceived by the audience as the villain of the series due to his dirty tactics in the boardroom, which saw him escape from being fired numerous times despite his consistently poor performance in the tasks, having been in the firing line four times in a row. On one of these occasions (Week 7) Michael's over-enthusiasm and tactics actually reminded Sir Alan of himself when he was younger, although he expressed regret about this in The Apprentice: Why I fired them, saying "Sir Al doesn't get it right all the time, you know." After turning on principal ally Raef in his (Raef's) final boardroom, You're Fired! presenter Adrian Chiles went as far as to brand Michael an "odious little twat". Michael later described himself as a "Dead man walking".⁷¹ He was fired in Week 10. Since leaving the show, Sophocles has admitted to at one time being a male escort to fund gambling debts. ⁷². Some have compared him to Syed Ahmed from Series 2.

Helene Speight

Helene Speight is a 32-year-old global pricing leader at General Electric responsible for growing profits and market share.⁷³ She was born in Leeds and studied at Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley and now lives in Leicester. In June 2000 she was employed by General Electric and has worked there since. After the Apprentice Helene returned to GE and was promoted to a General Manager of an engineering company. She was noted for her unpleasantness towards, and about, fellow contestant Lucinda Ledgerwood. Already under scrutiny and suspicion from Sir Alan due to her association with a corporate environment, she was fired in the finals after her team made an expensive bottle unfeasably cheap, meaning they lost the task.

Ian Stringer

Ian Stringer is a 26-year old software sales manager, who has worked at BBC local radio (Three Counties Radio) and once had a No. 8 hit in the charts when he rewrote the lyrics to Tony Christie's Amarillo.⁷⁴ He claimed that "losing" and synonyms are not words in his dictionary, although his performance as project manager proved otherwise. He was fired in week three.

He now commentates on BBC Radio Leicester's coverage of Leicester City FC games.

Shazia Wahab

Shazia Wahab is a 35-year old mosaic artist and company director. Her family, including her 11 brothers and sisters, hold a Guinness World Record for the number of university degrees held between them in the United Kingdom.⁷⁵ She was fired in week two, as she left her post which ultimately led to the mix up of items, but Adrian Chiles agreed with her own opinion that she was scapegoated by fellow contestant, and then-project manager, Jenny Celerier.

Alex Wotherspoon

Alex Wotherspoon, 24, was educated at the independent Bolton School in North-West England, and has a BA in Managerial Administrative Studies from Aston University.⁷⁶ Born in Bolton on December 30, 1982, and currently working as a Regional Sales Manager, Alex has a responsibility for a team of more than thirty sales agents at Sainsbury's Energy. He began his working life as a landscape gardener, before going to Texas for a year where he worked as a Loan Officer. Alex reckoned that he could have won The Apprentice because of his tenacity and communication skills, but admits he can sometimes be forgetful. He made it to the programme's final (as one of the last four contestants), but his group of two was struck off. In his free time he boxes and ballroom dances.⁷⁷ Along with Michael Sophocles and Jenny Celerier, he was perceived as a villain, due to his Machiavellian, backstabbing tactics in the boardroom, most notably against Simon Smith, Claire Young and Lucinda Ledgerwood. Series 3 contestant Tre Azam described him as "a good sales person" but that he (Tre) had "never met a snake like him", and was highly critical of Alex's bringing up of Lucinda's doubts about fitting into the job in her final boardroom meeting, resulting in her firing in week 11⁷⁸. Series 2 runner-up Ruth Badger was just as scathing, saying he "would not survive five minutes in my business"⁷⁸. Several internet blogs and forums have dubbed him "Weasel Wotherspoon". Former Celebrity contestant Clare Balding also criticised his behaviour on The Apprentice: You're Fired!, and radio host Vanessa Feltz also branded him a "snake". Even Sir Alan was critical of his backstabbing of Lucinda, saying "I didn't think that was necessary" but that it "certainly showed his character", and described Alex as overly defensive.

Claire Young

Claire Young, 28, is a senior retail buyer for Superdrug,⁷⁹ buying hair care products. She has a BSc in Equine Science from the University of Bristol. Claire was born in Johannesburg but brought up in Wakefield⁸⁰, where she went to St Hilda's primary school in Horbury and Wakefield Girls High School (both independent schools) after having moved to Wakefield at the age of four. Her appearance has been likened to Girls Aloud's Kimberley Walsh, a 'Size 16 Kimberley Walsh'⁸¹ with other praise of being a 'real woman' and an excellent role model to counter the 'size zero' culture.⁸² Questions have also been raised about her suitability for the show due to her 'racy past',⁸³ as well as the revelation that she had previously applied, numerous times, for reality show Big Brother.⁸⁴ In week 4, having been reprimanded by both Sir Alan and Margaret Mountford for her attitude towards her project manager Simon, it was thought that she was going to be fired when Sir Alan told her to leave the boardroom, but he added that she was to go back to the house and become project manager again. She learnt to control her impulsive and chatty ways and was later to be a runner-up in the series. She currently lives in south London, although her parents still live in Thornes in south Wakefield. After The Apprentice she got a job at Birmingham City after one of the interviewers on the show Karren Brady offered her the job.

References