Randal D. Pinkett (born 1971) is an American business consultant who in 2005 was the winner of
season four
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...
of the reality television show ''The Apprentice''. Pinkett is the first African American to win the US version of ''The Apprentice''.
With an educational background in engineering and business, Pinkett is both a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
and a
Walter Byers Scholar
The Walter Byers Scholar (also known as Walter Byers Scholarship, and Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship) program is a scholarship program that recognizes the top male and female student-athlete in NCAA sports and that is awarded annually by th ...
, and holds five academic degrees. Before entering the reality show, Pinkett had already established a career in business and had become co-founder of business consulting firm BCT Partners in 2001. As winner of ''The Apprentice'' Season 4 in December 2005, Pinkett undertook a yearlong apprenticeship with
Trump Entertainment Resorts
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. was a gambling and hospitality company. The company previously owned and operated the now-demolished Trump Plaza and Trump World's Fair (both in Atlantic City), the now-closed Trump Marina, Trump Casino & Hote ...
in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.
.
After ''The Apprentice'', Pinkett has continued as chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, while also acting as a public speaker and appearing on later editions of the show, and on
CEO Exchange
CEO Exchange is a television program featuring conversations between the host and two CEO guests, often from related industries. It is hosted by Jeff Greenfield of CNN. The show was distributed by WTTW to public television stations. It aired fro ...
; he has also entered politics.
Early life
Raised in
East Windsor, New Jersey
East Windsor is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Located within the Raritan Valley region, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census B ...
, Pinkett graduated from
Hightstown High School
Hightstown High School is a four-year comprehensive high school, comprehensive state school, public Secondary education in the United States, high school that serves students in ninth grade, ninth through twelfth grades three communities in Mer ...
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
in 1989 and graduated ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
. Pinkett is the first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
from Rutgers to become a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
. He went on to attend the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
from 1994 to 1996 as a member of Keble College, where he earned an
MSc
MSC may refer to:
Computers
* Message Sequence Chart
* Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
* MIDI Show Control
* MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor)
* USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...
in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
. He then attended
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
from 1996 to 1998, where he graduated with a second MS, this time in electrical engineering, and an
M.B.A.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from the
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...
through the Leaders for Global Operations program. He continued his education at MIT, where he earned a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in
media arts and sciences
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
from the
MIT Media Laboratory
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
in 2001. Pinkett's PhD thesis is titled "Creating Community Connections: Sociocultural Constructionism and an Asset-Based Approach to Community Technology and Community Building."
''The Apprentice''
In 2005, 34-year-old Pinkett, along with 17 other contestants, entered the
Season 4 Season 4 may refer to:
* "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock''
See also
*
* Season One (disambiguation) Season One may refer to:
Albums
* ''Season One'' (Suburban Legends album), 2004
* ''Season One'' (All Sons & Daughte ...
of ''The Apprentice''. His wife downloaded the application form, planting the idea of auditioning for the show in his mind. ''The Apprentice'' is a reality television series which premiered in January 2004, in which American entrepreneur
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
uses a series of tasks and a process of elimination to ultimately select one candidate for a yearlong
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
ship with one of his companies. The fourth season began filming in May 2005 and began airing September 2005; the two-episode finale aired on December 8 and 15, 2005. Pinkett reached the finale with one other contestant, 23-year-old financial journalist
Rebecca Jarvis
Rebecca Ann Jarvis (born September 28, 1981) is an American journalist and investment banker. She is the chief business, economics, and technology correspondent for ABC News, the host, creator, and managing editor of ''Real Biz with Rebecca Jarvi ...
. Pinkett was to organise a celebrity ballgame for Autism Speaks, while Jarvis' task was to stage a comedy night in aid of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Despite the game's being rained out, Pinkett raised nearly $11,000.
In the final judgement, Trump criticized Pinkett for not spotlighting the celebrities in attendance at his event, and by Trump's advisor
Carolyn Kepcher
Carolyn Kepcher (born January 30, 1969) is an American businesswoman who was one of the judges on the NBC television program ''The Apprentice''. She was formerly the Executive Vice President, chief operating officer, for the Trump Golf Propertie ...
for not having a backup plan when the weather turned. Despite this, Trump chose Pinkett as the winner, describing him as an "amazing leader" and saying, "Rarely have I seen a leader as good as you, and you lead through niceness". Moments after the announcement, Trump asked Pinkett his opinion as to whether Trump should take the unprecedented step and hire the "outstanding" Jarvis, too. In his reply, Pinkett asserted that there could only be one winner of the contest, a view which Trump chose to agree with. This stance attracted much comment after the show, and Pinkett later defended his rationale, but made it clear he had no objection to Jarvis' being hired by the Trump organization at a later date. The reactions had taken Pinkett by surprise, but he later stated he remained on good terms with Jarvis. Speaking years later about the incident, Pinkett told a reporter for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'': "The only conclusion I can draw is that he
rump
Rump may refer to:
* Rump (animal)
** Buttocks
* Rump steak, slightly different cuts of meat in Britain and America
* Rump kernel, software run in userspace that offers kernel functionality in NetBSD
Politics
*Rump cabinet
* Rump legislature
* Ru ...
didn’t want to see a black man be the sole winner of his show."
Pinkett started his apprenticeship on February 6, 2006. His task was to oversee the $110m renovation of the
Trump Taj Mahal
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (formerly Trump Taj Mahal) is a casino and hotel on the List of boardwalks in the United States#Atlantic City, Boardwalk, owned by Hard Rock Cafe, Hard Rock International, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. ...
, the
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
Trump Plaza was a hotel and casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, owned by Trump Entertainment Resorts. Designed by architect Alan Lapidus, it operated from May 15, 1984 until September 16, 2014.
History The beginning
The Tr ...
, and the
Trump Marina
Golden Nugget Atlantic City is a hotel, casino, and marina located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Opened in 1985 as Trump's Castle, it was renamed Trump Marina in 1997. Landry's, Inc. purchased the casino from Trump Entertainment Resorts in ...
, three casino resorts operated by
Trump Entertainment Resorts
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. was a gambling and hospitality company. The company previously owned and operated the now-demolished Trump Plaza and Trump World's Fair (both in Atlantic City), the now-closed Trump Marina, Trump Casino & Hote ...
in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.
.
Politics
In July 2006, Pinkett served as a co-chairman of the transition team of newly elected
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Cory Booker.
On July 14, 2009, it was reported by a number of sources that Pinkett had emerged as the frontrunner to be New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's selection for lieutenant governor in the 2009 Gubernatorial election. Some reports indicated an announcement would be made on Thursday, July 16. However, no announcement took place, and criticism appeared in the media and from some political leaders regarding Corzine's potential selection of a running mate with no experience in public office. Later in the week, news reports indicated Pinkett's selection was less likely and that other front runners had emerged, due at least in part to public criticism of the idea of a political newcomer as the Governor's running mate. On July 24, Corzine selected State Senator
Loretta Weinberg
Loretta Weinberg (born February 6, 1935) is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as a member of the New Jersey Senate from 2005-2022, where she represented the 37th Legislative District. She also served as Senate Majority Leader. ...
According to his website, Pinkett was an academic All-American at Rutgers. He was named a member of the ''1993 USA TODAY All-USA Academic Team'' and Pinkett was a member of the
Cap and Skull
Cap and Skull is a senior-year coeducational honor society at Rutgers University, founded on January 18, 1900. Admission to Cap and Skull is dependent on excellence in academics, athletics, the arts, and public service. The organization considers ...
organization. He served as President of MEET, the Rutgers Chapter of the
National Society of Black Engineers
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is a society that was founded in 1975 at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. It is one of the largest student-run organizations in the United States, with core activities centered o ...
, and was the captain of the Rutgers varsity men's track and field team, competing both as a high jumper and long jumper. In 1993, Pinkett was named Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar by ''Diverse: Issues in Higher Education''. Additionally, he was the 1994 male Walter Byers Scholarship winner as the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
's top scholar athlete. Pinkett is a member of
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...
fraternity.
In 2006, Pinkett was given the Paul Robeson Leadership Award by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts.
In August 2007, Pinkett's wife, Zahara, gave birth to a daughter in
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Somerset, New Jersey.