Margaret Rose Mountford (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Swale, born 24 November 1951) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

lawyer, businesswoman and television personality best known for her role in ''

The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a Reality competition, 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 variou ...

''.

Biography

Mountford is originally from

Holywood Holy Wood or Holywood may refer to: Places * Holywood, County Down, a town and townland in Northern Ireland ** Holywood, County Down (civil parish), a civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland ** Holywood railway station (Northern Ireland) * ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

.Apprentice star fires up NI women

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, 23 May 2007 She was educated at the voluntary grammar school,

Strathearn School Strathearn School is an 11–18 girls voluntary grammar school in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. History In 1864, of land were bought by William Mullan and Robert Mullan, on which Strathearn House was built. In 1904, Mullan sold ...

, in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, then at

Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. Mountford spent a number of years as a lawyer with

Herbert Smith Herbert Smith LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith and merged with the Australian law firm Freehills on 1 October 2012, forming Herber ...

, before taking on roles as non-executive director at

Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad ...

and Georgica. She chairs the board of governors of

St Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it merge ...

, an inner-London

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Comprehensive School.Spying for Sir Alan
The Guardian, 28 March 2007 After Mountford retired in 1999 she completed a degree in Ancient World Studies at University College London and then a MA in Classics. In April 2012, Mountford completed her PhD in

Papyrology Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, with her thesis entitled ''Documentary papyri from Roman And Byzantine Oxyrhynchus''. Mountford also chairs the Bright Ideas Trust which was set up by the first Apprentice winner Tim Campbell, and helps young people start their own businesses.

Television

From 2005 to 2009, Mountford was one of

Alan Sugar Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics com ...

's advisers, alongside

Nick Hewer Nicholas Radbourn Hewer (born 17 February 1944) is a retired English television presenter, company director (2010) and former public relations consultant. From 2005 to 2014, he appeared as Alan Sugar's adviser in the British television series ' ...

, in the UK version of ''

'' television show, a role with which she achieved increasing public popularity. Mountford also took part on the panel in ''The Apprentice - You're Fired'' on 27 May 2009 for the first time, during which she hinted that Lorraine would not make the final. In June 2009, Mountford announced she was leaving the show at the end of Series 5 in order to concentrate on her PhD and was replaced for Series 6 by businesswoman

Karren Brady Karren Rita Brady, Baroness Brady, (born 4 April 1969) is a British business executive and television personality. She is a former managing director of Birmingham City F.C. and current vice-chairman of West Ham United F.C., and an aide to Al ...

. She appeared in an episode of the 2010 series, where she helped Alan Sugar narrow down the candidates to a final two. Mountford returned for the

Apprentice Finals in 2011 The seventh series of British reality television series ''The Apprentice (UK)'' was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 10 May to 17 July 2011; due to a qualifying match for the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League set to be aired live on 20 July, ...

, 2012 and 2013 in a similar role. In March 2012 and January 2013, Mountford appeared on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' in Dictionary Corner, presented by her fellow Apprentice adviser Nick Hewer. In March 2013, Mountford presented a one-off BBC documentary programme ''Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time''. In July 2013, Mountford co-presented a two-part

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

documentary with Hewer entitled ''We All Pay Your Benefits'', filmed in Ipswich, the show investigated the benefit culture. In October 2013, she presented a

BBC Two Northern Ireland BBC Two Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann a Dó) is the Northern Irish variation of BBC Two operated by BBC Northern Ireland. It is broadcast via digital terrestrial transmitters and from the SES Astra 2E satellite (transponder 48 ...

documentary called ''Groundbreakers: Ulster's Forgotten Radical'', which highlighted the forgotten women's rights campaigner from the 19th century,

Isabella Tod Isabella Maria Susan Tod (18 May 1836 – 8 December 1896) was a Scottish-born campaigner for women’s civil and political equality, active in the north of Ireland. She lobbied for women’s rights to education and to property, for the di ...

. On 15 and 16 July 2014, Mountford co-presented a BBC One documentary with Hewer entitled ''Nick and Margaret: Too many Immigrants?'' which researched the impact of and attitudes towards immigrants in the UK and London. Between 24 and 28 November 2014, Mountford presented a BBC One programme entitled ''Don't Mess with Me'' which displayed the challenges that the public and Councils in the UK face against littering, as well as convincing the public to pick up their rubbish and take a stand to the problem. The programme considered scientific research into the problem as well as preventative action. In December 2015 Mountford appeared, alongside Nick Hewer, in BBC's ''

Celebrity Antiques Road Trip ''Antiques Road Trip'' (also known as ''Celebrity Antiques Road Trip'') is a BBC television series produced by STV Studios. It was first shown on BBC Two from 2010 to 2012, and has been shown on BBC One since 2013. This show is not to be confu ...

''. In May 2019 she presented a programme on the Classical poet

Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

titled "Sappho: Love & Life on Lesbos with Margaret Mountford".

Classicist

Mountford is currently on the Steering Committee for the

Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, known as the Hellenic Society, was founded in 1879 to advance the study of Greek language, literature, history, art and archaeology in the Ancient, Byzantine and Modern periods. The first Presid ...

and is the Chair of the

Egypt Exploration Society The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...

. In January 2019 Mountford gave a lecture at Haileybury titled "Papyrology – From Rubbish Bins to Riches", and in June 2019 she gave a lecture hosted by the

British School at Athens , image = Image-Bsa athens library.jpg , image_size = 300px , image_upright= , alt= , caption = The library of the BSA , latin_name= , motto= , founder = The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, called the foundation meeti ...

and the Egypt Exploration Society titled "Papyrology: is anything new under the sun?".

Publications

*2012.
Documentary papyri from Roman And Byzantine Oxyrhynchus
' (PhD Thesis). University College London *2012. "A day at the races in Byzantine Oxyrhynchus", ''Egyptian Archaeology'' 41: 5–7.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mountford, Margaret The Apprentice (British TV series) Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Living people British businesspeople British solicitors 1951 births People from Holywood, County Down British television personalities Protestants from Northern Ireland People educated at Strathearn School British women lawyers Women classical scholars Papyrologists