The Apprentice 2 candidates

This page gives biographical information on the eighteen candidates on The Apprentice 2:

Kevin Allen, Raj Bhakta, Maria Boren, Bradford Cohen, Jennifer Crisafulli, Pamela Day, Sandy Ferreira, Rob Flanagan, Elizabeth Jarosz, Stacie Jones Upchurch, Andy Litinsky, Ivana Ma, Jennifer Massey, Wes Moss, Kelly Perdew, Stacy Rotner, Chris Russo, John Willenborg


Kevin Allen

Kevin Allen is a law student at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. He was 29 years old when The Apprentice 2 aired.

Allen grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He attended the Wharton School of Business and later went on to earn an MBA in mergers and acquisitions and finance from Emory University. He has founded a software company with his brother.

Raj Bhakta

Raj Peter Bhakta of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a candidate on the second season of The Apprentice, an American job-candidate search reality show.

Bhakta graduated from The Hill School (with Donald Trump's son, Donald Jr.) and holds degrees in Economics and History from Boston College. He has worked in the investment banking and automotive industries. He currently works in real estate development.

He led the Apex team during week 9. The task was renovating dilapidated homes for appraisal. Because of poor communication and tactical errors, Apex came up short. In the boardroom, Bhakta admitted responsibility, hoping to deflect blame for his poor decision making. Trump fired him, however, because his mistakes were the most glaring and costly. On his way out of the boardroom, Bhakta attempted to secure the phone number of Robin, the desk attendant, but was denied. On the finale, however, it was revealed that the two did have coffee together after Bhakta's dismissal.

"America has not seen the end of Raj," he said after his rejection. In response to that statement, Bhakta dove into the political realm. Starting a non-partisan group, the GoAmericaGo, he wishes to make his political aspirations public and unite those in favor. GoAmericaGo is housed in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. In March 2006, Bhakta, a self-proclaimed "Teddy Roosevelt Republican", announced his candidacy for U.S. Congress in the 2006 elections for Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District as a Republican. Although winning the Republican party's nomination in an uncontested primary, Bhakta lost the election to one-term Democratic incumbent Allyson Y. Schwartz.

Bhakta appeared on the cover of the October 3–9, 2004 issue of TV Guide, along with Donald Trump and fellow candidate Maria Boren. Bhakta also was the Yahoo! analyst for The Apprentice 3.

Maria Boren

Maria Boren is a marketing executive from Virginia Beach, Virginia. She was age 31 when The Apprentice 2 aired. Boren grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. She holds a B.S. degree in business from Pensacola Christian College, and an MBA in entrepreneurial marketing from Regent University in Virginia. She was the Vice President of Marketing for a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in Richmond, Virginia.

After a weak performance in week 5 where her public speaking skills came into question, Boren was given the helm during week 6 and led her team to an easy victory. In week 11, the task was to create a catalog for Levi's jeans. Boren proved herself as a weak team player, and refused to listen to the directions of Wes, the project manager. Wes was unable to control her, as she became increasingly emotional and passive aggressive. Mosaic subsequently lost. In the boardroom, Boren was chastised for her belligerent behavior towards her Project Manager and was fired in the first double-firing in Apprentice history.

Boren appeared on the cover of the October 3–9, 2004 issue of TV Guide, along with Donald Trump and fellow candidate Raj Bhakta.

Bradford Cohen

Bradford Cohen of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was a candidate on The Apprentice 2. He was fired the second week after waiving his exemption.

Bradford Cohen was the Project Manager for Apex the first week. He led the women's team to its first out of only two victories, earning him an exemption from being fired the next week should his team lose. His team did lose the second week. In the heat of the moment in the boardroom, he waived his exemption. Simply on the basis that he was willing to put himself on the line, Ivana Ma chose him and two others to accompany her to the final boardroom. Much to Ivana's surprise, Donald Trump fired Cohen, stating that although he felt Cohen was the best on the team, an impulsive decision like that could sink a company in the real world.

Several years later, in the 6th episode of Season 2 of Celebrity Apprentice, he made reference to Bradford while firing Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins. Donald Trump stated Bradford is a "very smart lawyer from Florida and a brilliant guy". He then proceeded to fire Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins for volunteering to come into the boardroom, a similar move that got Bradford fired in Season 2. In passing Trump said "never volunteer for the firing squad"

After the show he ran for City Commissioner of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, losing by 3% of the vote. He can currently be seen as a frequent expert legal commentator on Dr Drew, Nancy Grace, NBC, CNN, Court TV, Dr. Phil and Fox News. He has been a Fort Lauderdale Criminal Defense lawyer since 1997 and opened his own firm in 2000. He was elected president of the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 2010 and a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida, Federal Court, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, District Court of Puerto Rico, Admitted to practice in Washington DC and Florida. He was named a Florida Super Lawyer for 2009–2010, an honor only bestowed on the top 5% of attorneys in his field of criminal defense. In 2015 he was named as one of the Top 1% of All Criminal Lawyers in the United States. He is well known for his representation of high-profile clients in difficult legal matters. He has handled cases for individuals such as Dennis Rodman, Scott Storch, Willie Williams, DMX, Robert "Vanilla Ice" Vanwinkle and Plaxico Burress. On March 29, 2016 he was hired by Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trumps campaign manager to represent him in a criminal battery case filed by Michelle Fields.[1] On April 14, 2016 the charges were officially declined by David Aronberg the District State Attorney for Palm Beach.[2]

He holds bar admissions in Florida, NY, Washington D.C., District of Puerto Rico, Federal Southern District of Florida, Federal Middle District of Florida and U.S. Tax Court.

Bradford Cohen is also known for being available to his clients on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week schedule.[3]

Jennifer Crisafulli

Jennifer Crisafulli, of New York City who was 31 years old on The Apprentice 2, graduated with honors and a BFA degree from Syracuse University. After leaving the entertainment business, Crisafulli began working in real estate, getting a job at Prudential Douglas Elliman in New York City. Jennifer went into multiple contracts within her first six weeks in business, and is now selling high-end residential real estate.

Jennifer was the fourth person to be fired. Her teammates accused her of being a poor leader, and of bringing teammates into the boardroom for personal reasons, choosing to ignore the faults of her subordinates, and not taking Bill Rancic's advice of executing the job interview for business gain.

In the fourth episode when she described a pair of elderly customers as "two old Jewish ladies", she was accused by fellow contestant Stacy R. of having made anti-Semitic remarks. Despite having a Jewish brother and using the phrase only to describe the pair to another contestant, she was nonetheless accused of being a bigot and terminated from her position at Prudential Douglas Elliman. This is the first time a candidate has been fired from their regular job due to behavior on the show.

Pamela Day

Pamela Day
Education B.A. in Economics (University of Pennsylvania); M.B.A. (Harvard Business School)
Occupation Real estate
Website PamDay.com

Pamela Day is the Managing Partner of Crimson Fund Advisors, a real estate investment firm which she co-founded in 2002. Day is best known for her performance as a participant in NBC’s The Apprentice 2 which aired in 2004.

Day earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997. She holds SEC Series 63 and 7 licenses and is a licensed California real estate broker.

After graduating from HBS in 1997, Day worked as an associate at Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate services & money management firm. In 1998, she entered the dot com economy as Vice President of Corporate Finance at AllAdvantage.com. In 1999, Day founded Blazent, a computer software company which she sold to Cohesiant in 2001. She remained as EVP and Chairman until 2002.[4] Later that year, she co-founded Crimson Holdings LLC, a company dealing in real estate investments and private equity placement.[5]

On the show, Pamela was portrayed as a tough, no-nonsense businesswoman. Her initial successes convinced Trump to transfer her to the competitors team in order to help them finally win. Ironically, in this episode, Day was terminated. The reason Trump fired Day was for her poor judgment of people despite the fact that her team lost by less than ten dollars. After leaving the Apprentice, Day worked to distance herself from the show, thinking herself to be better than the other participants.[6]

Sandy Ferreira

Sandy Ferreira is a bridal salon owner from Rockville, Maryland. She was 28 years old when The Apprentice 2 aired.

Ferreira won twice as Project Manager and had an important role in one of Kelly's victories: the task involved managing a bridal store. She surprised the other candidates for getting so far in the competition, since she didn't have a college degree. Ferreira was one of the final four applicants, but was fired for not impressing the interviewers.

Rob Flanagan

Rob Flanagan earned an American football scholarship to Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State University), and started at the linebacker position for four years. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology from the University of Texas at Austin, he and his wife founded Flanagan Enterprises, Inc. They turned Flanagan Enterprises into a multimillion-dollar company, selling corporate-branded items and custom solution packaging products worldwide.

In November 2003, Rob partnered with HotLink, Inc., based in Austin, Texas and is now Vice President of Dallas Texas Sales.

Flanagan's teammates accused him of not contributing enough during their first task, and he attempted to place the blame on his teammates for not utilizing him well enough. Donald Trump decided it was his fault for not taking the initiative, making Flanagan the first candidate fired from The Apprentice 2.

Flanagan was able to return in Week 9 to work with Mosaic. Trump thought he was a good worker, even though he was the first fired.

Elizabeth Jarosz

Elizabeth Jarosz was a candidate on the second season of The Apprentice. Jarosz owns a consulting firm. Jarosz attended the University of Michigan Business School. She previously worked at Procter & Gamble, which coincidentally was a sponsor of one of the tasks. Jarosz wrote, produced, directed, and edited the 2000 film Trick... or Treat?, which won the Best Short Drama award at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.

Jarosz was fired week 8 for being an indecisive leader. In an unprecedented move, Trump didn't even wait for her to bring two people back with her for the second round of the board room, since Trump felt that he already had enough evidence to rule her out of the competition. She was eventually brought back in the final two weeks to work for the finalists, where she was the first of all the candidates selected by Kelly. After the tasks, Mr. Trump complimented her for her hard work.

Stacie Jones Upchurch

Stacie Jones Upchurch has a BA from Emory University and an MBA from Mercer University.

Jones Upchurch disturbed many of her teammates in their first task by repeatedly referring to a Magic 8-ball while awaiting the outcome of the task. This was the first impression she made with her teammates and it eventually led to her termination. At the end of the third task, her teammates still remembered her "schizophrenic"-like episode, and brought it up in the boardroom. Concerned about the issue, Trump ordered all team members back into the boardroom to discuss it. After hearing each woman confirm Jones Upchurch's behavior, Trump decided to make her the third candidate fired from The Apprentice 2. His reasoning was that he did not want someone causing the rest of the candidates upset or nervousness.

Jones Upchurch was invited back to the program for the 9th installment. Trump brought back his first four firings to help with that week's task. In the boardroom, he acknowledged Jones Upchurch for her "hard work."

Andy Litinsky

Andy Litinsky was a candidate on the second season of The Apprentice. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 2004. In 1999, Litinsky won the U.S. National Debate Championship in Commentary Speaking. Although he got fired in one of the last episodes of the season, he now is an executive producer along with Trump on the MTV show "Pageant Place."

Litinsky was described as having "nine lives" by another contestant for his ability to face Trump in the boardroom and emerge unscathed. When given a chance to lead, he helped Mosaic create an effective, emotionally based advertising campaign for the New York Police Department in week 8.

Ivana Ma

Ivana Ma is a venture capitalist from Boston, Massachusetts. She was age 28 when The Apprentice 2 aired. Ma earned her B.S. from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia with a concentration in Finance. She came into the show with the disadvantage of having the same first name as Trump's first wife. In one episode, Trump goes, "[sigh] Ivana, Ivana!"

Ivana proved herself to be a tireless worker in the game despite her penchant for finishing the majority of tasks on the losing side. Ivana's record as Project Manager, though, was extremely shoddy: 0 wins for 2 losses. During the M&M's M-Azing Candy Bar challenge, Ivana failed to bring her team under control and her team lost. In spite of Kevin's low-pricing strategy, Ivana was fired.

Jennifer Massey

Jennifer Massey (Born Jennifer Jarratt)[7] was a candidate on the second season of The Apprentice. She is an attorney from San Francisco, California. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in English. She earned her law degree at Harvard University. Massey is a partner at the law firm of Cooley LLP.

In Weeks 12 and 14, Massey got into a verbal fight with Ferreira. While Massey made it to the finals, she was not well liked, and was perceived as being abrasive. Her winning record was not as strong as Perdew's and was perhaps the largest single factor in Trump's decision not to hire her. Additional criticism of her revolved around the fact that Jennifer was often able to hide her personal shortcomings in a task behind the errors of others on her team.

Wes Moss

Wes Moss, post-Apprentice

Wes Moss of Atlanta, Georgia is the host of Atlanta's longest running talk radio show, Money Matters, a call in show on Atlanta's 750AM/95.5FM WSB talk radio where citizens get financial advice. Additionally, Wes is a Certified Financial Planner and is Chief Investment Strategist at Capital Investment Advisors, one of Atlanta's largest fee-only advisory firms.[8]

Since age 15, when he started both a landscaping company and summer camp for Pennsylvania's rural children, he has been involved with business and entrepreneurship.[9]

Moss holds a degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2008 he published two books, Starting from Scratch – Secrets from 21 Ordinary People who made the Entrepreneurial Leap (Kaplan Publishing, ISBN 978-1419521065) and Make More, Worry Less.

Kelly Perdew

Main article: Kelly Perdew

Kelly Perdew is a Software Executive.

Stacy Rotner

Stacy Rotner is an attorney.

Rotner has a B.A. in Art History from Columbia University, where she graduated with honors. Rotner has worked at the legal departments of Sotheby's auction house and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

As of the first episode of the series, Rotner had little presence. She was fired in Week 7. Rotner later returned in the final two weeks of the show to work as an employee for Jennifer M.

Chris Russo

Chris Russo is a stockbroker from Long Island, New York. He works for Worldwide Wealth Management in Westbury,

Russo found himself in hot water during week 9. In the boardroom, he complained that his team's "chemistry was horrible" and that if it was composed of the same people the following week, they would surely lose. This outburst was seen as disloyal by Carolyn who chastised him by saying she didn't want to hear about his team's futility. "Don't tell us about it. Fix it!" Trump then named Russo Project Manager for the following week.In the boardroom, Trump mentioned how much he liked his accent, saying it made him comfortable and reminded him of his boyhood. Then he fired him.

John Willenborg

John Willenborg is a marketing director from San Francisco, California. He was 24 years old when The Apprentice 2 aired.

Willenborg graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. In college, he won three Division I national titles in rugby union. Since his firing, Willenborg has been hired by Fox Cable Group's Speed Channel to become a reporter for their new series, NASCAR Nation.

In one of the episodes, the teams were supposed to get great reviews for their restaurant. When a group of four supposedly homosexual men entered his team's restaurant, Chris Russo told John to use his sexuality to get the necessary positive reviews. The gay men were criticising about how awful the food was. Then, Raj suggested the John, being the best looking of the group, go out, bend over, and tie his shoes in front of the group of gay men. John did not go with Raj's suggestion but he did deliver the food to the table and turned on some charm to butter-up the gay customers. Trump gave the strategy a positive comment, comparing it with women using their looks to get what they want.

However, John was fired at the end of episode 6 when he made too many bad decisions when he became the project manager.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-who-is-brad-cohen-20160330-story.html
  2. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/13/politics/corey-lewandowski-donald-trump-charges-dropped/
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Blazent
  5. ↑ Crimson Holdings LLC
  6. ↑ Fast Talk: What I Learned on The Apprentice
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ "Wes Moss". Amazon.com. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  9. ↑ Would-be "Apprentice" inspires, Eastern Echo
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