The Apprentice: Meet the Irish rugby player and 'corporate panther' hoping to win

Conor Gilsenan from Mullingar says he is hard working and 'hyper-motivated by money' — he's among the 16 candidates on the new series which starts this evening

Thu, 06 Jan, 2022 - 18:11

Caroline Delaney and Danielle Desouza

Former professional rugby player, Conor Gilsenan, is up against an ex-RAF member, a nursery owner and a man who hopes to become one of the "bad boys of the bath bomb world" in his bid to get cash from Alan Sugar in the new series of The Apprentice.

Series 16 of the BBC show will see 16 entrepreneurs battle it out to win £250,000 worth of investment into their business.

Former Connacht, Leinster, and London Irish player, Conor, 28, is a sales executive and 'part time publican' living in London. He says he has a record for getting deals done and reckons he'll win the series.

His former teammates are sure to be watching out for him too:

Conor retired from professional rugby in September 2020 due to injury. He then started a new career in tech sales and last autumn launched a pop-up bar with fellow former London Irish player Topsy Ojo.

Conor has pub trade experience — his parents, Con and Joan, are proprietors of Con's Bar on Dominick Street in Mullingar.

Alan Sugar with the candidates (back row left to right) Ashkay Thakrar, Stephanie Afflek, Aaron Willis, Francesca Kennedy Wallbank, Alex Short, Amy Anzel, (middle row left to right standing) Harry Mahmood, Kathryn Louise Burn, Conor Gilsenan, Harpreet Kaur, (bottom row left to right sitting) Akeem Bundu-Kamara, Nick Showering, Brittany Carter, Shama Amin, Navid Sole and Sophie Wilding. Picture: Ray Burmiston/BBC/PA Wire

His competitors are:

Harry Mahmood, 35, a regional operations manager from the West Midlands, who describes himself as the "Asian version of Lord Sugar". He said he hopes to work with Lord Sugar to develop his business and become "the bad boys of the bath bomb world together".

Alex Short, 27, the owner of a commercial cleaning company in Hertford. Short left school after the first year of sixth form and is on route to tripling his turnover. He said: "I would compare myself to a Ferrari, shiny on the outside but under the bonnet, there is a lot of fire and I'm coming for you".

Shama Amin has said she wants to "be a living example for the Asian women and South Asian women out there". The 41-year-old mother of five and children's day nursery owner from Bradford added that "being a lady of colour, wearing a headscarf," means she understands the challenges they face.

Ashkay Thakrar, 28, the owner of a digital marketing company, is hopeful that his ability to speak seven languages will serve him well on the show. He said his friends "call me AK47 because I'm a killer salesperson" and has claimed that his first word as a newborn was "profit". Thakrar has also said that sleeping is a "waste of time" as it goes against the reason he believes he was put on Earth — to make money.