James Max (born 20 May 1970) is a journalist, TV and radio presenter specialising in current affairs and business issues. He presents the Early Breakfast Show from 5am to 6.30am on TalkTV. He is a regular contributor to The Talk on TalkTV, The Jeremy Vine Show on Channel 5 and on Jeremy Vine ' Extra'. Other programmes he's presented include the Early Breakfast on BBC Radio London and the Weekend Breakfast Show for

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

speech radio station LBC 97.3 until August 2013. He announced on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

"A wonderful 7 1/2 years. Sadly, all good things come to an end. Not my choice. But, for now, it’s goodbye to you at the weekends and to LBC". He was a semi-finalist on the first series of the British version of ''

The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a reality talent game show franchise originally aired in 2004 in the United States. Created by U.S.-based British producer Mark Burnett, the show depicts contestants from around the country with various professional backg ...

'' television programme. He's also an advisor on many property and business projects providing advice on business development, social and digital media. James was an executive director of BNP Paribas Real Estate, heading four of their business lines and was on the UK Board. He is also an advisor to Stanhope, the developer who purchased the former BBC Television Centre in West London, presented the monthly Estates Gazette podcast, Real Talk. He is also on the council and a trustee of the Hall of Arts and Sciences, better known as the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

. James is currently Chair of the M7 Regional E-Warehouse REIT.

Early life

Born in London in May 1970, James Max is the youngest of four brothers. He was educated at St Paul's School, leaving in July 1988 with three A-levels. After a gap year he went to the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, graduating in 1992 with a first-class BSc honours degree in Land Management.

Career

Chartered Surveyor

Max joined property advisors

DTZ Debenham Thouard Zadelhoff, known as DTZ, was a European joint venture originated from UK, France and the Netherlands, operating as a commercial real estate services firm. On September 1, 2015, Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ merged. In December 20 ...

to undertake professional training to become a

Chartered Surveyor Chartered Surveyor is the description (protected by law in many countries) of Professional ''Members'' and ''Fellows'' of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) entitled to use the designation (and a number of variations such as "Chart ...

. He passed his Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) in 1994 and became a member of the

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a global professional body for surveyors, founded in London in 1868. It works at a cross-governmental level, and aims to promote and enforce the highest international standards in the val ...

(MRICS). In 1995 he became an associate director, and in 1997 was promoted to director. Whilst at DTZ, he worked with Rob Andrew, the former England rugby fly-half, in the international investment team. In 1998, he joined the London arm of US investment bank

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

. He worked on a range of projects including the £1.54 billion securitisation of

British Land The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...

's Broadgate office scheme in the city of London and the successful defence and subsequent property restructuring for Marks and Spencer plc.

''The Apprentice''

Max was a semi-finalist in the first series of reality TV show ''

''. Screened on BBC2 in 2005, contestants competed for a £100,000-a-year job as "apprentice" to British business magnate Lord Alan Sugar. He was a project manager three times during the show. He was on the winning team in eight out of a possible ten tasks (a feat since matched by Lucinda Ledgerwood). This included being on the winning team for six tasks in a row, making him the record holder for the highest number of successive wins on the programme until Series 7, when Helen Milligan exceeded this number. He was "fired" by Sugar in the interview round (episode 11). It is worth noting that the job he had left before appearing on the Apprentice had a higher salary than the eventual top prize offered on the show. In his autobiography, Lord Sugar states he fired Max from "The Apprentice" as he felt he was using the show as a route into a media career. Max has, however, stated publicly that this was never his intention.

Media and broadcast

Since ''The Apprentice'', Max has developed a career in media and broadcast whilst continuing his business activities. From May 2006 until August 2013, Max presented on LBC 97.3. Initially presenting a weekly business show ''Business Matters'', he has presented a range of shows on the station. In addition to Weekend Breakfast, he regularly covered for his colleagues before his sudden departure on 28 August 2013. He announced his departure on his Twitter feed making it clear that it was not his choice. During 2012, he covered for

Nick Ferrari Nicolo Ferrari (born 31 January 1959) is a British host, television presenter and broadcast journalist. He is best known as the host of the weekday breakfast show on the London-based radio station LBC, with 1.5 million weekly listeners. He al ...

at Breakfast,

James Whale James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: ''Fran ...

's Drive, James O'Brien's mid-morning show, Julia Hartley Brewer's afternoon show and in October, he covered for Steve Allen's Early Breakfast, when Mr Allen took a week off to go to Las Vegas. Previously presenting the weekday Business Update on TalkSPORT from April 2006 to May 2008, he also presented a range of late night, overnight and Saturday evening shows on the station. In October 2007, Max started a 10-week run of a new Saturday show called ''The Finer Things in Life'' which aired, live, every Saturday night on the station between 5pm and 6pm. In January 2008, Max presented the ''Early Breakfast Show'' from 5am to 7am on Fridays and 6am to 8am on Saturdays. Between 2007 and 2009, he presented and appeared as a regular panellist on Overseas Property TV. Max presents ''

Property Week ''Property Week'' is a UK business-to-business magazine which reports on the worldwide commercial and residential property market. It reports news, features and analysis and the latest information from the industry - from development opportunit ...

'' magazine's monthly podcast, and wrote a monthly lifestyle column entitled "Something for the Weekend" between 2005 and 2008. Max reviewed the newspapers on Sky News between 2005 and 2018 becoming a regular on both the evening shows and on Sunrise. He is a current affairs commentator. He regularly appears as a pundit on

Jeremy Vine Jeremy Guy Vine (born 17 May 1965) is an English television and radio personality, presenter, broadcaster and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guest ...

's BBC Radio 2 Show and on his channel 5 morning TV programme. He joined

Talkradio TalkRadio (previously styled as talkRADIO) is a talk radio station broadcasting nationally in the United Kingdom, which was relaunched on 21 March 2016. Based in London and owned by Wireless Group, a subsidiary of News Corp., it is the sist ...

in 2018 to present a weekday early breakfast news show from 5 am to 6.30 am. The show is now broadcast on TalkTV live from the talkRADIO studios. Max is a regular columnist and contributor to the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

. Writing about "Rich People's Problems" in the FT Money personal finance weekend section, Max covers a variety of topics of interest to FT readers with an irreverent and informative style and personal insights.

Royal Albert Hall

In 2012, Max was appointed to the council of the Hall of Arts and Sciences, better known as the Royal Albert Hall and in September was also appointed to the Programming and Marketing, Fundraising and PR and Reputational Management Committees.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Max, James 1970 births Living people Alumni of the University of Reading The Apprentice (British TV series) candidates English male journalists English radio presenters English Jews English male non-fiction writers People educated at St Paul's School, London