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This is what happened to all the previous winners of The Apprentice

This is what happened to all the previous winners of The Apprentice

A new series of The Apprentice is nearly here, but what happened to all the other winners?

A new series of The Apprentice kicks off tomorrow (5 January) and will follow a whole new batch of candidates seeking to start a business with Lord Alan Sugar.

The candidates are aiming to obtain the £250,000 investment to go halfsies with Lord Sugar on a business plan they created, and the BBC has promised that this newest series of the show will be 'bigger and better than ever'.

Now onto a whopping season 17, the show has left a long string of winners who ended up coming out on top, as well as plenty of others who didn't but entertained us plenty along the way.

Flanked by aides Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campbell MBE, Lord Sugar will have to sift his way through 18 candidates to figure out who he wants to partner up with.

With a whole new crop of candidates aiming to win The Apprentice, it might be handy to know what happened to the past winners.

Tim Campbell

As you might have guessed, the Tim Campbell who won the first series of The Apprentice is the same guy who will be chaperoning the candidates and reporting back on their progress to Lord Sugar this time around, the student has very much become the teacher.

Tim won the show when the prize was a job working for Lord Sugar, or Sir Alan as he was back then, before leaving to set up a perfume business and founding the Bright Ideas Trust.

He was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to enterprise culture.

It's hard to pin down how much he's worth these days, but the Birmingham Mail reckons it's somewhere between £700,000 and £3.7 million, and that's sure to increase as he becomes a TV fixture.

First Apprentice winner Tim Campbell is back on the show.
WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Michelle Dewberry

Second season winner Michelle left the job she'd won in The Apprentice after nine months, going on to open her own consultancy firm.

She later attempted to move into politics, standing in the 2017 general election as an independent candidate in the Hull West and Hessle constituency, coming fourth with 5.5 percent of the vote.

She tried again in 2019 with the Brexit Party, again failing to win the seat, and has since become a presenter for GB News, and is estimated to have a net worth of somewhere around £1.2 million.

Michelle Dewberry tried twice to become an MP.
Russell Moore / Alamy Stock Photo

Simon Ambrose

Simon got a £100,000 a year salary job at Lord Sugar's property company Amsprop, but left in 2010 to start his own property development firm.

He's now the chairman of the London Contemporary Orchestra, one of the more 'out there' places Apprentice contestants have ended up after the process.

Simon Ambrose defeated Kristina Grimes to win The Apprentice.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Lee McQueen

Long time Apprentice viewers might remember Lee as the guy who did a pterodactyl impersonation at the interview stage of the task, and if you can still get the job after pretending to be a dinosaur, then you must have something going for you.

On his first day of working for Lord Sugar after winning the show, he ended up phoning in sick before spending two years working for Amscreen.

After that, he followed in the footsteps of many other early winners and struck out on his own, founding the Raw Talent Academy which counts its revenues in the millions.

Who could forget the guy who pretended to be a pterodactyl during the interview stage?
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Yasmina Siadatan

Joining Lee at Amscreen with another of the £100,000 a year salaried jobs, Yasmina ended up attracting the attention of another wealthy entrepreneur on TV.

She was hired by James Caan of Dragon's Den, and the pair eventually founded the Start Up Loans Company.

Not bad going to get chosen by two TV famous entrepreneurs.

Yasmina (left) won season five of The Apprentice, but later got hired by Dragon's Den star James Caan.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Stella English

Things didn't go so well between Stella and Lord Sugar after she won season six of The Apprentice.

While she worked for Viglen and YouView following her win on the show, she later resigned and unsuccessfully sued Sugar for constructive dismissal.

He in turn attempted to counter-sue her, and was also unsuccessful.

Stella was the final Apprentice candidate to compete for a job at one of Lord Sugar's companies, with the show's format being altered after her win.

Stella English (centre) ended up resigning from working for Lord Sugar and sued him.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Tom Pellereau

Had it not been for the format change 'Inventor Tom' might have ended up getting eliminated early on, with a track record of losing eight tasks and winning just three.

However, with The Apprentice shifting to partnering up with Lord Sugar for a business plan, he managed to stick through the process and became the first winner of the new format.

Tom ended up using the £250,000 investment he got from winning The Apprentice on expanding the health and beauty range of products he'd invented, amassing a net worth of around £1.3 million.

Curved nail file inventor Tom Pellereau won the first revamped series of The Apprentice.
WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Susie Ma

Alright, so Susie didn't technically win The Apprentice, but she still ended up with the prize.

Lord Sugar was so intrigued by her skincare business plan that he decided to invest in it anyway, and put money into her Tropic Skincare brand to give it a major boost.

She's gone on to be one of the most successful candidates in Apprentice history, outshining pretty much all of the winners with a net worth of £12.7 million.

Susie Ma didn't even win and she ended up being one of the most successful Apprentice candidates ever.
WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Ricky Martin

The second Apprentice winner to get funding for his business plan, Ricky founded Hyper Recruitment Solutions and was the first of Sugar's business partners to make £1 million in profit from the £250,000 investment and is now worth over a million quid himself.

He also made another appearance on The Apprentice in 2014 as one of the interviewers the final group of candidates must face.

Ricky Martin (no, not that one) did return to The Apprentice for the interview stages.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Leah Totton

Dr Leah Totton set up her own range of clinics with the investment money from Lord Sugar and ended up winning a number of awards for it.

She later decided to go back to the NHS on a part time basis, splitting her time between running her business and working as an A&E doctor.

She told the Sunday Times her chain of clinics would probably cost around £7 million for someone to buy, though she's not interested in selling up.

Dr Leah Totton balances her business with working part time for the NHS.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Mark Wright

Not to be confused with the Mark Wright from The Only Way Is Essex, this one founded digital marketing brand Climb Online and got down to the business of making money.

Clearly an impressive fellow, he also picked up a number of personal awards for being good at business, and according to the Daily Express he's making about £5 million in turnover.

Things have gone well for Mark Wright ever since winning The Apprentice.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Joseph Valente

A qualified plumber by the time he appeared on The Apprentice, Joseph was the first of the business plan winners to split off from Lord Sugar.

He bought out the business mogul from boiler installation company ImpraGas and went on to take full control of the venture they had set up after the show.

Estimated to be worth around £4.4 million, he seems to be doing pretty well for himself after striking it out on his own.

Joseph Valente ended up buying Lord Sugar out of the business they set up.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Alana Spencer

She almost got booted off the show in the early rounds, but bounced back to win the whole thing and set up luxury cake company Ridiculously Rich.

Like her immediate predecessor among winners of The Apprentice, Alana decided to buy Lord Sugar out of the business and fly solo, and is now worth around £1.1 million.

Alana Spencer is now flying solo with her cake business.
WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Sarah Lynn

The big twist of season 13 of The Apprentice turned out to be both finalists getting hired by Lord Sugar.

Sarah Lynn's sweet gifting enterprise Sweets in the City now has products stocked in retailers across the UK.

Sarah Lynn launched her business with a picture of Lord Sugar made out of sweets.
WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

James White

The other half of the double winning duo, James set up Right Time Recruitment, but joined the growing ranks of business partners who decided to go it alone without Lord Sugar.

James was wished well by Lord Sugar and the two parted ways on good terms.

Sarah Lynn and James While both won the same season of The Apprentice.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Sian Gabbidon

Swimwear designer Sian's business got off to a bit of a bumpy start with reported losses, but she soon turned it into a success.

Her Sian Marie brand has gone from strength to strength after being worn by a number of influencers and is stocked in ASDA.

Sian Gabbidon's fashion range is doing well.
A List Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

Carina Lepore

After setting up the Dough Artisan Bakehouse with Lord Sugar, Carina has opened up another location and will look to follow in the footsteps of the previous Apprentice winners.

It's still early days for her ventures with Lord Sugar and she will be hoping that like his other business partners, she can build something which flourishes and more than makes back the £250,000 investment.

Carina Lepore used the investment from Lord Sugar to open up the Dough Artisan Bakehouse.
Instagram/@carinalepore_

Harpreet Kaur

The latest Apprentice winner has only just got going as far as her partnership with Lord Sugar on business venture Oh So Yum goes, but time will tell how successful it ends up being.

To know who'll follow her to get the £250,000 investment, you'll just have to watch The Apprentice and find out.

Harpreet Kaur (right) is the latest winner of The Apprentice.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

The Apprentice returns on 5 January at 9pm on BBC One.

Featured Image Credit: BBC

Topics: BBC, TV and Film, Business