Margaret Mountford

Margaret Rose Mountford (born 24 November 1951) is a British lawyer, businesswoman and television personality best known for her role in The Apprentice.

Biography

Mountford is originally from Holywood in Northern Ireland.^[2] She was educated at the voluntary grammar school, Strathearn School in Belfast, then at Girton College, Cambridge. Returning to education later in life, she completed her PhD in 2012 at University College London.

Mountford spent a number of years as a lawyer with Herbert Smith, before taking on roles as non-executive director at Amstrad and Georgica.^[3] She chairs the board of governors of St Marylebone,^[4] an inner-London Church of England Comprehensive School.^[5]

Mountford also chairs the Bright Ideas Trust. BIT was set up by the first Apprentice winner Tim Campbell, and helps young people start their own businesses.^[6]

In April 2012, Mountford completed her PhD in Papyrology at University College London with her thesis entitled Documentary papyri from Roman And Byzantine Oxyrhynchus.^[7]

TV appearances

From 2005 to 2009, Mountford was one of Lord Sugar's advisers, alongside Nick Hewer, in the UK version of The Apprentice television show, a role with which she achieved increasing public popularity.^[8] Mountford also took part on the panel in The Apprentice - You're Fired on 27 May 2009 for the first time, during which she hinted that Lorraine would not make the final.

In June 2009, Mountford announced she was leaving the show at the end of Series 5 in order to concentrate on her PhD. She was replaced for Series 6 by businesswoman Karren Brady.^[9]

She appeared in the 'interview' episode of the 2010 series, where she helped Lord Sugar narrow down the candidates to a final two. Mountford returned for the Apprentice Finals in 2011, 2012 and 2013 in a similar role.

In March 2012 and January 2013, Mountford appeared in the Channel 4 game show Countdown in Dictionary Corner. In March 2013, Mountford presented a one-off BBC documentary programme Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time.

In July 2013, she co-presented a two-part BBC One documentary alongside Nick Hewer entitled We All Pay Your Benefits, filmed in Ipswich, the show investigated the benefit culture.

In October 2013, she presented a BBC Two Northern Ireland documentary called "Groundbreakers: Ulster's Forgotten Radical", which highlighted the forgotten women's rights campaigner from the 19th century, Isabella Tod.

References