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The Apprentice

• BAFTA Award-winning business series The Apprentice has previously had seven successful series and one previous series of Junior Apprentice.
• As well as a wealth of loyal fans, The Apprentice has received critical acclaim and won numerous awards including a BAFTA.
• Last year, Junior Apprentice transmitted on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One over a six-week period and peaked at six million viewers as 16 and 17 year olds from across the UK pursued a prize tailored to his or her individual career prospects, worth up to the value of Β£25,000, with Arjun Rajayor crowned the first Junior Apprentice.
• The Apprentice has spanned seven adult series, one junior series and stellar celebrity lineups across two Comic Relief specials and one Sport Relief special. The Apprentice has spawned a number of columns and blogs in the national press and has been spoofed by comedians including French & Saunders, Harry Hill and Dead Ringers. In 2007, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two show Kombat Opera spoofed The Apprentice with Kombat Opera Presents... The Applicants. In 2009 renowned YouTube artist Cassette Boy created Cassette Boy vs The Apprentice which has attracted over 2.8 million hits to date on YouTube alone.
• An award-winning series, The Apprentice has walked away with top TV gongs including recent accolades at the BPG TV Awards, Televisual Bulldog Awards, National Reality Television Awards and TV Choice Awards as well as nominations at the BAFTA Craft Awards and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 1 Teen Awards along with a Press Guild Award for series six and a TV Choice Award for Best Reality Show for series seven.

Lord Sugar

After leaving school in Hackney aged 16, Sugar started selling car aerials and electric goods out of a van he bought for Β£50. In 1968, he founded Amstrad, and now, more than 40 years later, he has an estimated worth of Β£730 million, and was ranked 85th in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List.

A former Chairman of Tottenham Hotspur FC, Sugar sold his Amstrad empire to Sky in July 2007. Sugar's other companies include AMSCREEN, which offers digital screen media advertising networks, AMSAIR, which offers business and executive jets to a number of high profile clients around the world, AMSPROP, a property investment firm and VIGLEN, a manufacturer specialising in computers, networks and solutions.

In 2000, Sugar was knighted for his services to business and he holds two honorary Doctorates of Science degrees, awarded by City University and Brunel University respectively.

Having previously sat on the Business Council for Britain and fronted a campaign promoting the benefits of apprenticeships, in 2009 he was named as Enterprise Champion and appointed to the House of Lords as Baron Sugar of Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney.

Lord Sugar is a philanthropist who donates to a number of charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital and Jewish Care.

Nick Hewer

Former PR impresario Nick Hewer started off in public relations in the mid 1960s. Heading up his own PR company until its sale in 1997, Nick built an impressive corporate client list which, over more than 30 years, included many British and international companies and organisations, including the Secretariat of His Highness the Aga Khan, based in Chantilly, France and the wife of the ruler of Dubai, the late H H Sheikh Maktoum.

Nick first came across Lord Sugar when his PR company was chosen to represent Amstrad in 1983. Soon taking care of his profile across all business and personal dealings, Nick became a trusted ally and firm friend to the tycoon, playing an integral part in the management structure at Amstrad.

Friends throughout both careers, Lord Sugar laid on a dinner at The Dorchester for Nick and 100 guests to celebrate his official retirement.

Says Nick: "Alan is a very generous friend. The best thing about working for him was there was always something going on – he has a vibrancy about him."

Nick's career has taken him all over the world; in his retirement he still pursues his lifelong passion of world travel. Not long ago he drove a 20 year-old Renault 4L solo from London to Mongolia for charity and last summer took part in the Children in Need trek from Istanbul to Almaty in Kazakhstan.

As a patron of Hope and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔs for Children, Nick helps promote this British charity. He has worked for them in Romania, Rwanda and will visit Sierra Leone this summer.

He has a home in France where he indulges his other passion, for old tractors.

Karren Brady

Karren Brady began her career at LBC when she was 18 years old and swiftly moved on to Saatchi & Saatchi as junior Account Handler. She joined Sports Newspapers Ltd in 1988 and became Director within a year.

Karren is now known as the first woman of football. She was Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club from 1993 to 2009 and during that time turned the Club's fortunes around. She took over Birmingham City FC when it was in administration, and in her first year at the helm, the Club recorded a financial trading profit.

In January 2010, Karren was appointed Vice Chairman of West Ham United FC. Karren has attracted much media attention in her position, and was the subject of an hour-long documentary Inside Story – The Real Life Manageress, shown on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

Karren has written four books: a factual account of her first season at Birmingham City, Brady Plays The Blues; two novels, United and Trophy Wives; and her latest book Playing To Win is about successful women in business.

Karren is a columnist for The Sun newspaper, the UK's biggest selling national daily newspaper, and also writes for the popular lifestyle magazines Cosmopolitan and Woman & Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

She is a judge of the Cosmopolitan Women of Achievement Awards and is an Ambassador for the Stroke Association and WellChild.

Previously on the Board of Mothercare PLC, Channel 4 Television and Sport England, Karren now holds the position of non-Executive Director of Arcadia.

She is an honoree Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing and in 2010 was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Birmingham.

In March 2007 she was chosen as the Project Manager of the girls' team on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One's The Apprentice, for Comic Relief, where she lead her team to a resounding victory over the boys, raising over Β£750k for charity.

The Apprentice – Awards

The Apprentice has received critical acclaim and won numerous awards including a BAFTA, three Televisual Bulldog Awards and the Broadcasting Press Guild for Best Factual Entertainment Programme.

It has won the Terrestrial Programme of the Year at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Festival twice (2008 and 2009).

The programme has also won the Broadcast Award for Best Entertainment Programme, a National Television Award for Most Popular Reality Programme, the Rose D'or Reality Show award and was most recently awarded the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for series six.