Meet the cast of The Apprentice

BY KIMBERLEY ROTHWELL

Kim Laurenson is the first contestant to be fired by ‘The Boss’ Terry Serepisos in the New Zealand version of The Apprentice.

After the fourteen contestants were divided up into two teams consisting of men and women, Laurenson stepped up to project manage Team Athena in the first challenge of the series

The contestants were tasked with raising money from a sausage sizzle in central Auckland.

Thirteen business magnate wannabes from around New Zealand are left to compete for a place under Serepisos wing, and the $200,000 salary package that goes with it.

Each week they'll be set tasks that will test their business acumen, their leadership skills, and their integrity. Though most of the series has been shot, a final decision about who takes the prize has yet to be decided.

We take a look at the people vying for the job of a lifetime.

Catherine Livingstone, a 33-year-old Aucklander, runs her own concierge service. She loves animals - has two dogs, two cats, and six chickens - and considers Tim Livett, one of the chief executives at Virgin, to be her role model.

Chris Whiteside started an internet business with his twin brother when the two were still in high school. The 28-year-old Cantabrian says the venture was "relatively successful" but it was turning an idea into reality that gave him the biggest buzz. The accountant says he's got the right balance of business acumen and creativity to land The Apprentice job.

31-year-old Daniel Phillips is a senior account manager with an Auckland advertising firm but says he was "brought up in a pub in Tokoroa that was just like the one on Once Were Warriors". He claims that his honesty, charm and cheekiness will get him through The Apprentice.

The self-proclaimed "smiling assassin", 27-year-old David Wyatt from Auckland promises to stand out from the others on The Apprentice because of his knack for solving unsolvable problems. He runs his own media agency.

Karen Reid would probably score well if she went on the original The Apprentice show - her role model is Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka. "She is beautiful, talented, and she can hold her own in the boardroom," Reid says. The 33-year- old Aucklander says she won't sleep "if that's what it takes to win and get the job done". She's a self-employed alternative medicine practitioner.

Boutique store owner and real estate agent Kim Laurenson should be a strong competitor - she regularly takes part in Ironman triathlons and is pretty confident she'll win The Apprentice. The 27-year-old from Christchurch has no sympathy for the unemployed, and says, "If you really can't find a job, then think outside the square and create one!"

Online marketer Lee Davies has no trouble backing himself. Not only does he say he saved his first $1 million cash by age 24, and made his second million at age 27, but he's going to win The Apprentice because he's a "mathematical genius". Now 29, he wants to take the top job not only for himself, but because he wants to make the world a better place.

Linda Slade from Christchurch is the youngest competitor on The Apprentice at just 21. The South African-born business student says her strategy will be to "play the 'under the radar' game until the point where most of the riff raff has been removed from the competition."

PR specialist Nicky Clarke is a big fan of positive thinking guru Anthony Robbins. "The man just never gives up," she says. Clarke, 28, says she's run with the Queen, toured astronauts around the UK and ran a fundraising dinner with the All Blacks in her work. "I'm not what people think," she says. "I guess I look like the shy, friendly girl next door . . . but I'm actually a driven, hard-playing, pushing the limits woman."

The only Apprentice candidate who admits he's been a slacker in the past is Paul Natac, a 28-year-old Aucklander. Rather than racking up degrees and qualifications, Natac dreamed of being an actor. He got all his training on the job, by getting people to mentor him. He says: "I have worked hard the last eight years becoming friends with people who are GMs and senior managers of organisations I've worked for."

Self-employed Aucklander Richard Henry should teach a course in management speak. The 26-year-old says he "thrives on the creative industries and robust debate, and aspires to better the world en route to the finer things in life," and his "entrepreneurial edge, grounded understanding, and core ethics" will get him the top job. Moving forward.

Thomas Ben is a 34-year-old Aucklander who says Jesus is his role model. "He shows us that one man's actions can change the world. That underneath the crap we load on ourselves, that people are good and that gives me hope that I can build a career in business without being a wanker." Ben says his lack of tertiary qualifications aren't going to hold him back.

Meenakshi Chhagan has been in Dublin working for three months, so the 25-year-old will miss most of the hullabaloo with the launch of The Apprentice. "It's hard being on the other side of the world," she says. "But it's something that I've gotta deal with. I am a little bit worried about being portrayed in a light which isn't me, but I think I can trust my friends and my work colleagues to know me well enough that even if I am portrayed in a bad light, that's not actually me."

The words "opportunity", "challenge" and "learning" are sprinkled liberally through everything 36-year-old business development manager Kirsty Parkhill says.

Talking about how she came to be on The Apprentice, she says: "My flatmate came home one night and said he'd enrolled me in it, but he hadn't, he was joking. But he dared me to do it because he believed, and a lot of people around me saw, that it would be a great challenge to me. It went from a joke and a dare, to a challenge and an opportunity."

* Who are you backing to win? Post your comments below.

- © Fairfax NZ News