With The Apprentice final tonight we thought we would tell you all where the other 10 winners are now
Tim Campbell
The first Apprentice winner, Campbell bagged himself a £100,000 a year job with Lord Sugar at Amstrad after demonstrating his superior party-throwing skills. That was back in 2005, and though the prize only guaranteed him a job for a year, he proved such an asset to the company that they renewed his contract.
In 2007, though, he decided to go it alone, founding The Bright Ideas Trust. Working with the government, it offers grants to disadvantaged young people who want to start their own businesses. He went on to become a Social Enterprise Ambassador, bagged himself an MBE for his services to ‘Enterprise Culture’, and is now part of a posh property investment company. He’s co-written a book on business, and also works as a motivational speaker.
Michelle Dewberry
Dubbed the ‘Silent Assassin’ by the press, Dewberry didn’t get on so well with her post-Apprentice job with Lord Sugar. She quit the £100,000 a year job at Xenon Green she won after eleven months, claiming that she never could have made the computer recycling businesses successful.
Dewberry went back to working for herself, running the business consultancy she’d owned before ever applying for The Apprentice in the first place. She also works as a motivational speaker, TV pundit, and magazine columnist, using the media exposure to her advantage.
Simon Ambrose
Former investment banker Ambrose made a better fist of his hard-won job. His victory came after he designed ‘The Wave’, a proposed new building for London’s South Bank, and appropriately he nabbed himself a job at Amsprop, Sir Alan’s property company. He remained in the job for three years, training to become a surveyor at the same time, but left in 2010 to run his own events company.
Lee McQueen
Despite being caught lying on his CV about how long he’d spent at university, McQueen was never in the bottom three and romped to victory – plus a £100,000 job as development director at Amscreen.
The job got off to a shaky start as McQueen had to call in sick on what should have been his first day, but he managed to prove himself by securing some lucrative contracts, and ended up staying on in the job for another year before striking out alone in 2010. He set up the Raw Talent Academy, a recruitment and training company that helps businesses set up their own internal ‘sales academies’.
Yasmina Siadatan
Before applying to The Apprentice, Siadatan was running a restaurant with her brother. Like McQueen, when she won the show she was given a £100,000 a year job at Amscreen, but she left after her year’s contract was up, having fallen pregnant. She took some time off and had a second child, and was then headhunted by James Caan and now works as a creative director at Start Up Loans. Funny how so many Apprentice winners go on to work for companies who invest in wannabe entrepreneurs…
Stella English
Oh dear. While most Apprentice winners made the most of their coveted jobs, series 6 winner Stella English was decidedly unimpressed with her prize. She was employed at Sugar’s IT company Viglen, but complained that there wasn’t a job for her to do there, so moved to YouView, another Sugar company, instead.
She left that job after 13 months, though, and again claimed that the job wasn’t what she’d expected. She attempted to sue Sugar for constructive dismissal, saying that she was “an overpaid lackey” who didn’t have the amount of contact she’d expected to have with the mogul. Unfortunately for her, the court sided with Sugar, saying she didn’t have a case; Sugar countersued, and she was made to pay £35,000 in expenses. More bad times followed, as English was also sued by former employees of her failed events company in 2014. Yikes.
Tom Pellereau
From series 7 onwards, Apprentice winners weren’t employed by Lord Sugar – instead, they won £250,000 to invest in their own business, with a bit of help and advice from Sir Alan. For Pellereau, who’d always wanted to be an inventor, that turned out to be a far better result.
Although he seemed like an unlikely winner, he’s gone on to invent several interesting products, some of which are even stocked in a supermarket near you: he created the Stylfile curved nail file,the Babisil collapsible baby bottle, and the Amadeus acoustic screen, among other things. Pellereau reckons he comes up with new inventions every day, so who knows what he’ll create in future.
Ricky Martin
Yeah, not that Ricky Martin. Former pro-wrestler Martin used his prize to set up Hyper Recruitment Solutions, which is a specialist science and technology recruiting company (presumably their processes are slightly less arduous than the one Martin had to go through to get Lord Sugar’s investment cash).
Martin also works as a motivational speaker, and is an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Society.
Leah Totton
A qualified physician when she applied to be on The Apprentice, Totton’s business idea was a medical one: when she won, she launched the Dr Leah Clinic in central London. It’s not the kind of clinic you’d visit for your annual flu jab, though – it’s a cosmetic skin clinic that offers a range of treatments including microdermabrasion, tattoo removals, and anti-wrinkle injections.
As well as running her own clinic, Totton has advocated for better regulation of the cosmetic industry, arguing that practitioners should be properly trained and practices should be held to high standards.
Mark Wright
Last year’s winner, Mark Wright, signed up for the show because he wanted backing to launch a digital marketing company – so when he won, he created Climb Online. According to his business plan, the agency wouldn’t turn a profit until its eighth month, but actually it started making money within two months, and while it’s obviously only been a year since his win, Wright seems to be doing okay for himself.
On the strength of all that, then? Whoever wins series 11, we’re seeing a career in recruitment, venture capitalism, and motivational speaking in their future.