Claire Young's Biography

Claire Young was a 29 year-old senior retail buyer from Tooting in South London when she entered The Apprentice series 4.

She was earning £85,000 a year plus a bonus (one year of £27,000) when she entered The Apprentice.

Claire Young, the daughter of Richard and Cheryl Young, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to junior school at St Hilda's Convent.

She was then brought up in Wakefield in the North of England.

Claire, whose hobbies include horse riding, spent a year at medical school before gaining a degree in Equine Science.

Claire spent 3 seasons as a Club 18-30 rep in Magaluf.

At the time of The Apprentice, Claire Young was a Category Buying Manager at Superdrug, dealing with hair care products.

Before moving into retail buying, Claire Young worked in marketing, merchandising, and commercial sales.

Claire's nickname at work was "The Rottweiler" because of her tenacious approach.

Claire Young's role model is Oprah Winfrey.

In the first week of The Apprentice, Claire Young was team leader for the women and their side won.

In week 4 of The Apprentice, Claire received a tongue-lashing from Sir Alan Sugar and was made team leader in week 5. Her team won.

Claire Young reached the final of The Apprentice series 4, which unusually featured four candidates.

Claire and Lee McQueen beat their rivals Alex Wotherspoon and Helene Speight in the final, but Sir Alan Sugar chose Lee over Claire.

On June 12, 2008, the Birmingham Mail reported that Birmingham City managing director Karren Brady was due to meet Claire Young to follow up on her job pledge made during the series of The Apprentice.

A fortnight later, newspapers were reporting that Claire Young had accepted the job with Karren Brady but because of media commitments might not assume her post until the autumn.

Claire Young later confirmed that in September 2008 she was starting a senior role based in sales at Birmingham City.

In March 2009, the BBC reported that Claire Young was running a wedding planning and consultancy business.

In October 2010, Claire Young in the build-up to the launch of The Pera Foundation's annual Say Yes Challenge, said:

"I say to youngsters, I was where you are 15 years ago and now I've got two businesses. I've met the Queen, the Prime Minister. I'm a normal girl from Yorkshire who doesn't have a business background so If I can do it, you can."

In 2012, The Yorkshire Post referred to Claire Young as "the owner of www.schoolspeakers.co.uk, a company that provides 165 speakers who go into schools to provide talks, workshops and enterprise days."

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