Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Maria hoping to be hired as TV’S new Apprentice
FORMER Barton Court Grammar School pupil Maria O’connor, from Herne Bay, is the youngest candidate trialling to become The Apprentice in the new BBC One series.
You will be able to watch how Maria, 20, who runs the Elizavet Greek Restaurant, Sandwich, fares when the show starts on Wednesday.
Maria, who opened her restaurant aged 19, will pit her business skills against 15 other candidates in the eighth series of the show starring Lord Sugar.
She said: “If you chuck me in the deep end I’ll swim, I won’t sink.”
Business
Her opponents include a professional wrestler, ice skater and beauty salon owner, aged mainly in their mid and late 20s, up to 33.
In the first episode, they will be split into teams with boys against girls and set up their own print business.
They will have £500 to buy raw materials, from mugs to mouse mats, and then must create designs and sell their own products to the public.
What they create and who they sell them to is their choice. Winning is down to making the most profit when success and failure is exposed in the boardroom.
They will be under the eagle eyes of Lord Sugar’s advisers Nick Hewer and Karren Brady throughout.
Maria said she is headstrong and cunning in business, but said her persuasive charm helps her always get what she wants.
Maria enjoys shopping and socialising and describes herself as an adrenaline junkie.
Her wish is to be the “brains behind cotton buds as they are cheap to make but are used in every household”.
Challenges will include designing a new household gadget, producing a condiment, opening a junk shop, creating a fitness DVD, representing urban/street artists and promoting English sparkling wine.
Lord Sugar, who founded the Amstrad group of companies, said he is looking for a Marks to his Spencer. At the series launch, he said: “We’re not playing Where’s Wally here. I’m not looking for Lord Lucan.
“I’m looking for somebody who is going to put themselves forward and show me that they have got the aggression and business acumen to be my partner.”