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 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. He was on his way to a career as a professional football player, but gave up this aspiration when his brother was diagnosed with leukemia. Allen 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 Peter Bhakta of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a candidate on the second season of The Apprentice, an American job-candidate search reality show.
Bhakta is known for his eccentricities, including wearing colorful clothing, bowties, and walking with a cane. He was 28 at the time the show aired.
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.
He tried to secure a date with Anna Kournikova, who agreed if he could return just one of five serves. If he failed, she would then be able to dare him to perform a forfeit. He ended up running around the Arthur Ashe Stadium in his underwear, while the rest of his team, Ms. Kournikova and John McEnroe fired tennis balls at him.
"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 Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic(C.A.R.), he wishes to make his political aspirations public and unite those in favor. C.A.R. 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.
Stacy Rotner, 26, New York City, New York. she is an attorney.
Rotner has a B.A. in Art History from Columbia University, where she graduated with honors. Stacy received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, and she currently practices corporate law at a top law firm in New York.
She has also practiced intellectual property law dealing with issues that include copyright, trademark, entertainment law and art law. In addition, Rotner has significant public speaking experience.
Rotner has worked at the legal departments of Sotheby's auction house and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
According to The Apprentice website: "Stacy is not someone to be overlooked. It might be easy to do however, because this 26 year old is under five feet tall, and that's with heels. What she lacks in height, she more than makes up for in tenacity."
As of the first episode of the series, Rotner had little presence. She appeared to many to be trying to "fly under the radar" for a while, a trick that often either works on reality shows, or completely falls apart.
Rotner mostly argued with the project managers in the tasks. This led her to being picked to go to the board room several times. She was shown constantly arguing with Jen C., Pamela, and Wes. She was fired for not taking responsibility in the failure of the tasks and placing all the blame on the project manager. Rotner later returned in the final two weeks of the show to work as an employee for Jennifer.
Oregon newspaper The Trades noted Rotner has a habit of rolling her eyes a little too regularly.
