The Apprentice’s Tim Campbell MBE has joked the boys have ‘let the side down’ ahead of a strong all-female finale with Kathryn Burn and Harpreet Kaur
Tonight’s episode will see either Kathryn or Harpreet receive £250,000 from Lord Sugar as he hires a new business partner.
Tim was announced as Claude’s replacement to help Lord Sugar in his decision making after the 72-year-old was involved in a nasty bike accident shortly before filming commenced.
Tim was always planned to feature in just one season, but fans have enjoyed his involvement with the show as he’s kept a close eye on the candidates.
Chatting to Metro.co.uk, Tim gave insight on what it was like to be on the other side of the boardroom as he celebrated the women’s achievements on the programme.
Sharing his thoughts on being able to watch the contestants learn and grow, he said: ‘Oh my God, it’s been amazing. I’m quite humbled by the fact you get to see firsthand, people give their absolute all in order to get to a particular end goal.
‘Now, this year the women have been a lot stronger than the boys. Unfortunately, the boys have let the side down again!’
This year’s interview stage was a solely female affair, and Tim shared: ‘I’m really proud, for the first time ever in the whole show, four women got through to the final four. That’s an amazing testament and we’re having a very powerful conversation about inclusion and diversity within organisations.’
He acknowledged the interviews were ‘really tough and intense’ and told us: ‘It brought back memories of when I’d done it. I was a bit more like Kathryn and Harpreet. I wasn’t really intimidated by the process. It was nervy, don’t get me wrong, you were anxious, but I thought, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got nothing to hide, but nothing to lose. Let’s have a go. I deserve as much as anybody else to be in that process.
‘I think the confidence that we saw in some of those candidates, particularly when sometimes women get negative connotations about being in pressured situations was a great testament to say we shouldn’t be treating anyone any different in a work environment.’
‘This week, a woman is going to receive an amazing investment from a fantastic entrepreneur, when in the venture capital private equity world, less than 1% of women founders received any money from VC businesses. So that’s great in terms of inclusion.’
He told us: ‘I’ve had a huge amount of fun on the show but I think I was personally really glad to see Claude back because he’s such a big part of the actual process.