List of The Apprentice candidates (UK series seven)

The following is a list of candidates from the British reality television series The Apprentice.

Candidates are listed alphabetically by series; individual candidate information is accessed by clicking on their name below.

Where a date of birth is not provided, the age given is as of the time the relevant series aired.

Nominated for RFD: see Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion

Edna Agbarha

Edna Agbarha, 36, was a London-based business psychologist prior to filming. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of East London, a master's degree in occupational psychology from Goldsmiths, University of London, and an MBA qualification from Imperial College Business School.^[16][17] During the process, Edna lead her team to a win in Week 2, despite making the questionable decision to pitch at a games fair herself, when there were a number other candidates who would arguably have been more suitable; many of the team thought the pitch had cost them victory, and were surprised to learn they had won by a large margin. After 5 successive task wins, Edna was brought into the boardroom in Week 6 by Zoe Beresford, where she was accused of claiming credit for the successful ideas of others. When Lord Sugar asked why he should let Edna continue, she highlighted her academic qualifications, but this only resulted in her digging an even bigger hole for herself, and Lord Sugar fired her. She later that she should have brought up her professional experience. She was the only candidate that eventual winner Tom Pellereau didn't work with during the series.

Zoe Beresford

Zoe Beresford, 26, was a pupil of Abbots Bromley School, an independent school in the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, and holds a master's degree in manufacturing, engineering and management from the University of Nottingham,^[18] where she was awarded a Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Technology Prize for the School of Engineering's highest dissertation mark. She lives in Arclid, Cheshire and worked as a Project Manager for a drinks manufacturer until January 2011, when she was appointed territory manager for an outdoor/snow footwear retail company.^[18][19] She suffered two bouts of cancer, aged 15 and 18.^[20] On The Apprentice, Zoe came to the fore in week 3 when she was brought into the boardroom by Gavin Winstanley for disruptive behaviour, although she got off lightly since Lord Sugar did not hold directly responsible for the loss. In week 4 she was placed in the role of Project manager for Venture in the beauty treatments task. She relied on industry expert Susan Ma's advice when choosing product quantities, but halved the size of the order after consideration; even the new quantity proved far too much, as Venture only made a little over £200, a poor figure for such a market. Zoe blamed this on Susan on the task, and on the You're Fired programme that followed, Felicity Jackson took the view Zoe had been setting Susan up as a potential scapegoat.

In week 6 Zoe took on the role of Project manager again, but on this occasion she lost the task after failing to secure both of the deals arranged by Lord Sugar for waste disposal. Although Zoe was tearful at the end of the first day over the failure, she rallied on the second and Venture made separate deals of their own, so the end result was a difference of only £6. Zoe brought Susan and Edna into the boardroom, and once again came into conflict with Susan, who perceived Zoe as unnecessarily negative and unpleasant, while Zoe considered Susan to be naive and immature. Zoe's survival was mostly a result of her admitting fault at the first opportunity. In week 9, Zoe became project manager for the biscuit-making task, something similar to her day job before the series. However, her decision to manage marketing rather than the factory led to a snap and share biscuit design that was deemed to be too poor a quality to warrant the price. This led to team Logic securing no orders and suffering the worst defeat in the show's history. Lord Sugar decided to fire Zoe for not showcasing her strengths.

Alex Britez Cabral

Twenty-eight-year-old Alex is a manager of an estate agency. Alex was criticised in week 1 for selling only £8 worth on the task, spending most of the day cutting bread and serving soup. Edward Hunter's decision not to bring Alex back into the boardroom was a major reason he was fired. In the second week Alex, was the only member of Logic who did not put himself forward to be project manager, and once again had little presence on the task; the rest of the team declared him the weakest team member on both tasks, with Jim Eastwood going as far as to call him a "spectator". In the boardroom he mounted a vigorous defence, attacking Jim, although Jim countered by stating Alex's contribution had been "nada". Lord Sugar remained unimpressed, and Alex was fired for not showing any leadership potential and for staying in the background rather than stepping up.

In a clip shown on You're Fired! he was mocked by fellow contestant Glenn Ward who said "Alex? I always forget him." owing to him staying in the background.

Vincent Disneur

Vincent Disneur was educated at St. Anselm's Catholic School,^[21] a voluntary aided Roman Catholic secondary school in Canterbury in Kent.

Disneur stepped up to lead the team in the fifth week of the process, but was subsequently fired alongside Ellie Reed in a double firing. While on The Apprentice, Vincent had never been on a winning team.

Leon Doyle

Leon Doyle is a 26-year-old graduate who was educated at two independent schools in the town of Harrogate in Yorkshire, at which he was a day boarder: at West End Preparatory School,^[22] a former boys' preparatory school and Ashville College,^[22] a co-educational senior school, followed by the University of Huddersfield. He lived in Leeds and founded the business 'The Master Menu'. He was fired on 22 June (week 8), during a task concerning taking British products into the French Market. He was accused of not contributing enough to the task and using the language barrier as an excuse.^[23]

Jim Eastwood

Jim Eastwood is a 32-year-old Sales & Marketing Manager from Northern Ireland. He was educated at St Mary's Grammar School, a state grammar school in Magherafelt, and went on to study at the University of Ulster.^[24]

Eastwood started work in his father's fish & chip shop chipping potatoes from the age of nine and went on to maintain top sales performances as a Sales and Marketing Manager. Jim, who was "All Ireland cycling champion" as a teenager, champions Richard Branson and describes himself as 'driven, self-motivated, resilient and an eternal optimist.' He said that "I'm not a show pony or a one-trick pony, I'm not a jack-ass or a stubborn mule, and I'm definitely not a wild stallion that needs to be tamed. I am the champion thoroughbred that this process requires."

Eastwood made it to the final, where he proposed an education business called "AMSmart" but was eventually fired. On The Apprentice: You're Fired, Dara O'Briain nicknamed him "Jedi Jim" because of his uncanny ability to persuade and influence people.

Melody Hossaini

Melody and her family fled from Iran when she was a child, and after living for a few years in Sweden, they settled in the UK. Melody started school in the UK at the age of 13, and was educated at Great Wyrley High School,^[25] a state comprehensive school in the large village of Great Wyrley in South Staffordshire. She says that she felt culturally different from the other pupils, some of whom "had not even visited London", while she had lived in several countries. Nevertheless, she performed well in her GCSEs and A-levels before going on to Oxford Brookes University, where she obtained a 2:1 LLB Hons. Law degree. She has lived in four countries and speaks five different languages.^[25]

Melody was the first ever Social Entrepreneur to compete on The Apprentice. Melody is the Founder and CEO of social enterprise, InspirEngage International.^[26] Starting her career aged 13, she now specialises in Skills Training to support individuals into employment and enterprise, through delivery of tailored 'InspirEngage Skills Bootcamps'.^[27] She began the series confidently, coming up with the team name 'Venture' and winning as Project Manager on the first week and avoiding the boardroom for a number of tasks. She made it to week ten, before being fired by Lord Sugar 'with regret'.

Edward Hunter

Edward is a 25-year-old accountant who was trained by one of the United Kingdom's leading accountancy firms. He was the first candidate to be fired in the seventh series of The Apprentice by Lord Sugar.^[28]

Felicity Jackson

Felicity attended St Albans High School for Girls, an independent school in Hertfordshire, followed by The Court Theatre Training Company. Felicity has set up Casting Days Ltd, and Surviving Actors Ltd - both aimed at actors, and offers different services to help within their career. After three consecutive victories on team Venture, Felicity was moved to Logic to be Project Manager for the Beauty Treatment task; Lord Sugar commented he had not seen much of her up to this point. Unfortunately, Logic's attempt at the task was a total disaster - Felicity later stated on You're Fired that several mistakes were not even included in the final cut of the episode. Logic were already disadvantaged before they had started selling, as they not only failed to secure the spray-tan system, but more crucially chose a bad location, with the single treatment room being three floors above their selling stall. Felicity then compounded this mistake by over-ordering on products and failing to drive customers upstairs, which was put down to her poor communication with her teammates. Logic thus made a loss of over £200, and Felicity was fired for extreme indecisiveness and poor decision-making. She is now working for talent website StarNow as their UK & Europe Markets Manager. Casting Days Ltd, and Surviving Actors Ltd have doubled in size since her appearance on the show.

Susan Ma

Susan is a 21-year-old Managing Director of Tropic Skin Care Ltd.^[29] She was educated at Croydon High School,^[30] an independent school for girls in Croydon in South London, and graduated in 2010 from University College London with a 2:1 in Philosophy and Economics. She was described by Nick Hewer as "a little force to be reckoned with"...  At the beginning of the process, Susan had difficulty making herself heard, but in Week 3 led Venture to a narrow victory on the Discount Buying task - although her team only got small discounts, they managed to locate 9 of the 10 items, in contrast to Logic's 6. Her performance in week 4 on the Beauty Treatments task was less impressive - as the industry expert in cosmetics, she advised Zoe Beresford on key decisions at the start of the task, but was blamed for a massive overspend on products that left the team with a small profit. While Lord Sugar criticised this mistake, Susan was visibly angered by Zoe's attitude, particularly during the task when Zoe confronted her about the excess stock, which Susan saw as an attempt to make her a scapegoat. Tensions rose again in week 6 on the Rubbish task, as Zoe dismissed Susan's suggestion to secure clients set up by Lord Sugar for waste disposal by paying a small fee for valuable scrap, and insisted on charging for the team's services. Susan was vindicated when both clients opted for the deals offered by Logic, and Venture lost the task as a result. Zoe brought Susan into the boardroom for being a weak contributor and an annoying presence, but Susan acquitted herself well, and although she interrupted Lord Sugar's deliberations, she escaped with only a warning.

Susan was brought into the boardroom again the following week, this time by Jim Eastwood after the magazine task, and was branded the "mouse" of team Venture due to her consistent failure to make herself heard. She responded with an impassioned defence, and survived while Glenn Ward was fired. In week 8, she took on the role of project manager again to sell English products in Paris, and despite some rather bizarre questions about the French, made good choices with her products, while Helen Milligan secured a huge order from a major retailer, achieving the largest Apprentice victory in terms of cash margin at the time.

In the final, Susan offered up the best overall business plan of the four finalists, but was let down by her boasts about how much money could be generated in the first few years. Deciding that Susan needed more experience in the world of business, Lord Sugar fired her, along with fellow contestants Helen Milligan and Jim Eastwood, as inventor Tom Pellereau went on to win the series. In You're Hired!, Lord Sugar said that he had always wished to be associated with skin care business, and that with Tom's nail filer on board, he would keep in touch with Susan to assemble a team.

Helen Milligan

Helen was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester in October 1980.^[31] Following a degree from De Montfort University in Law (2:1), Helen worked as a Business Development Support Manager at BB's Coffee and Muffins. Most recently she has acted as an executive assistant to the CEO following a spell as a regional manager for Gregg's in the Midlands.^[32] Helen holds the record for the highest number of successive Apprentice wins; she was on the winning team for the first nine tasks before losing in Week 10. Previously, the record was held by James Max and Tre Azam, who won six consecutive tasks in Series 1 and 3 respectively. She also holds the record for the best performance in the series (10-1 win/lose ratio) and holds the joint record for success a project manager 3-0, with series five winner Yasmina Siadatan. In addition, she made the most money during the programme than anyone else, breaking the record for the most money ever won on a task in Week 8, and then breaking her own record again in Week 9. She was the Runner-Up of series 7 of the show. She has now been promoted by Greggs to Head Of Retail in the South East.

Tom Pellereau

Tom was educated at Twyford School, a co-educational independent school in the village of Twyford in Hampshire, before moving to St Edward's School, Oxford aged 13. He achieved a 1st class degree as well as a masters in Mechanical Engineering and Innovation from the University of Bath. His ambition has always been to be an inventor and this is reflected by his continued approach to product development. Some of his inventions to date have included: the Stylfile (a curved nail file), an Ethical Goods brand that connects brands with relevant charities, Mode Diagnostics (bowel cancer screening tool), Babisil (first collapsible silicon baby bottle) and the Amadeus acoustic screen for musicians.

Tom remained on team Logic for the entire series, and thus gained a win:loss ratio of 3:8, the worst of any UK Apprentice winner. In the first 5 weeks, where he lost every task, he gained a reputation for being a "hindsight man" and alongside fellow contestant Jim Eastwood, his strategy of getting out of the last three for the first five weeks during Logic's losing streak was discussed on the spin-off special How to Get Hired; there were several occasions where he identified key flaws in the team strategy, but lacked the force of character to persuade his fellow candidates to change course. A notable example was in the advertising task, when Tom unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Vincent Disneur and Jim Eastwood that their branding choice would make the product unsellable; Vincent was subsequently fired, while Jim had a narrow escape. Tom was later elected as Project Manager to sell in France, and although his instincts about the products were correct, he was persuaded otherwise by Melody Hossaini, and Logic suffered a catastrophic loss. Tom only avoided firing because Leon Doyle had even less presence in the team than he did. He then had another close call in Week 9, where his biscuit design was universally panned and earned no orders whatsoever. However, his third boardroom appearance happened more by default; Tom was responsible for half of Logic's revenue, while Melody and Helen Milligan had pursued a totally unsustainable strategy that saw them lose despite Venture earning a considerable fine.

In the final of the series, Tom came under fire for his poorly written up business plan for office equipment for back problems, but was praised for his creativity and business experience. He was subsequently declared the winner of The Apprentice from series seven.^[32]

Ellie Reed

Born in Bradford, Yorks, Ellie is the co-founder and managing director of Shipley-based recruitment firm A&E Construction.^[33] She graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 1999 with a degree in psychology.^[34] She is a keen golfer and is a dog-owner. Ellie was fired on the fifth episode of the show, in a double-firing with Vincent. A survivor of cervical cancer, Ellie campaigns for women to undergo regular smear tests^[35] and has established her own consultancy firm to encourage young people into business careers.^[36]

Natasha Scribbins

Natasha Scribbins was educated at The Richard Huish in Taunton Somerset, before completing her degree at Bournemouth University in the UK. Natasha has a strong career in the recruitment and staffing industry having worked for global organisations such as Hays and Randstad. Natasha specializes in Oil, Gas and Chemical markets and lives and works in the major oil and gas hub, Houston, Texas, USA. She was fired in week 11 of the series, after winning two tasks as Project Manager.^[37]

^[37]

Glenn Ward

Senior Design Engineer Glenn, from Hertfordshire, is a keen amateur footballer who cites Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as his inspiration. He was fired in Week 7, when his 'Hip Replacement' magazine met with heavy criticism.

Gavin Winstanley

Gavin was fired on the third episode of the show. He originates from Liverpool, and runs his own opticians.

References