Apprentice Bill Fires Self
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17323,00.html
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Apprentice Bill Fires Self
by Gina Serpe
Sep 8, 2005, 1:35 PM PT
The original Apprentice has beaten Donald Trump to the punch.
First season winner Bill Rancic has announced plans to quit working for the real estate mogul when his contract expires next March.
"That will probably be it for me," Rancic said while speaking at the Foundation for the Future's Global Leadership Forum in Malaysia Wednesday. "I'm going to go out and start another business of my own. That's in my blood."
The self-proclaimed "serial entrepreneur" has been working on the construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in his hometown of Chicago since being hired in front of 28 million viewers in April 2004.
In addition to his Apprentice duties, Rancic is currently involved in a fruit-processing operation in Canada and is looking to make like Trump in the real estate department.
"Donald Trump has taken me under his wing," Rancic said. "I've gone all over the world with him, I've seen every deal that he's involved in right now. I've really seen what business is like on one of the highest levels out there.
"In the years to come, I hope there will be Bill Rancic Towers right alongside Trump Towers."
Despite his plans to bow out of Trump's organization, Rancic won't be out of The Donald's life completely. Rancic will appear in the upcoming fourth and fifth seasons of the reality juggernaut.
The Chicagoan beat out 15 other contestants on the reality show's inaugural season to earn the coveted prize of heading up a Trump company and nabbing a six-figure salary. He impressed Trump so much that his one-year contract was extended to two last spring.
Subsequent winners may not have fared so well.
According to a Newsweek report earlier this year, gigs in the Trump empire aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Second season winner Kelly Perdew landed the plum job of managing a group of luxury buildings in New York, but the news magazine claimed Perdew spends his days performing PR duties in a "small, windowless space" next to the assistant to Trump's wife.
Third season's "book smart" winner Kendra Todd has been dispatched to Palm Beach, Florida, where she is overseeing the refurbishing of one of Trump's expansive beachfront mansions.
The Apprentice returns with 18 new Trump-approved candidates for what he calls a "bigger, better" fourth season on Sept. 22. That's one day after the premiere of the spinoff, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.
