Pub trade two vie to be The Apprentice
The pub trade will have two contenders vowing to be Sir Alan Sugar's Apprentice.
Howard Ebison, 24, is an area manager for Mitchells & Butlers and has been running 10 unbranded pubs in the London area, while Kate Walsh is a former business development manager (BDM) at Marston's.
Ebison is an award-winning dancer who has overcome early setbacks — he was fired as a paper boy. "I'm incredibly ambitious. If I don't go far down this route I shall go far down another route," he says. He graduated from the University of Warwick with a 2:1 in mathematics and business studies.
On a career at M&B he says: "I loved working in a bar during my time at university and pubs and restaurants operator M&B offered a graduate scheme that enabled me to continue my interest in licensed retail, but at a managerial level."
At M&B, they're tight-lipped: "I'm not allowed to say anything," a spokeswoman said. Ebison led the boys in the first task of the series.
Walsh, joined Marston's as a graduate trainee six years ago and was a marketing executive before becoming a BDM. She left three years ago to join Starbucks.
Walsh says she admires the ballsy approach to business of Sex & The City's Samantha.
"My CV speaks for itself. I've always excelled academically and I have really achieved within a corporate environment across sales, marketing and a number of different aspects of business."
A trade source said: "She is a real smart cookie. I think she has a chance of winning."
The show kicks-off tonight on BBC1 at 9pm.
Do you know or have met Howard Ebison or Kate Walsh? Let us know by emailing Ewan.Turney@william-reed.co.uk.
