If you watched any of the first five seasons of Donald Trump's The Apprentice, there is a face that you wouldn't have missed. A straight-shooting woman with blonde hair, in her late 30s and always by Trump's side on the show. Carolyn Kepcher is a New York-born businesswoman who had risen from selling Avon products door to door in high school, to being the chief operating officer of the Trump Golf Properties.
On The Apprentice, she served as Trump's right hand, alongside her colleague George H. Ross, who was an executive vice president and also senior counsel in the Trump Organization. She was a constant presence in those tense moments in the boardroom before the ominous "You're fired" Trump mantra was uttered to at least one contestant at the end of each episode.
Kepcher was a judge for a total of five seasons (75 episodes) before she herself was fired by Trump. The allegation against her was that being on TV had made her too big of a star to concentrate on business as before, and she was shown the door. 15 years after she was also replaced on The Apprentice by Trump's daughter, Ivanka, here is what Kepcher has been up to.
Not Born Into Money
Kepcher was born in January 1969 in Westchester County in New York City. She was not born into money, and attended Mercy College on a volleyball scholarship. While there, she studied a marketing major and also simultaneously worked her first job - as a manager at a restaurant in Manhattan.
After finishing college, she landed a sales director job at a golf club. Her paths would cross with Trump's when the future POTUS purchased the golf club. He was said to be impressed with her business acumen, and over time he promoted her: first to general manager, and later to chief operating officer of two of his golf clubs - one in Briarcliff Manor, New York and the other in Bedminster, New Jersey.
By the turn of the millennium, her involvement in the Trump organization had taken her close to the very top. Trump considered her a close confidante. In 2004, she wrote a book titled Carolyn 101: Business Lessons From the Apprentice's Straight Shooter. In the same year, she joined her boss on the first two seasons of what would turn out to be one of the top reality shows of the 2000s.
Gave Her Visibility
The Apprentice very quickly became a national and global sensation, with top ratings for each season. Within two years, NBC had already filmed and aired five seasons. For Kepcher, her time on the show had given her visibility as she had never had before. However, it also meant that she had less time and space to focus on her daily tasks as COO.
In a 2005 interview with Women's Health Magazine, she was asked how much time she actually got to spend in the two golf clubs she managed. "Not as much as I'd like — about once or twice a month," she answered. "And that's when I'm not shooting The Apprentice or involved in promoting it, which these days is all the time."
"But it is a major advantage for a woman to be able to play a good round of golf. Why? Most men don't expect women to play as well as they do. When they can, it earns them a certain respect that most certainly helps them in business relationships."
No Longer Focused On Business
In August 2006, two months after the conclusion of Season 5 of The Apprentice, news broke that Kepcher had been fired from the Trump Organization. There was no official statement from Trump himself, but an inside source quoted by the New York Post alleged that she had become 'a prima donna.'
"Being on The Apprentice went to her head," the said source claimed. "She was no longer focused on business. She was giving speeches for $25,000 and doing endorsements. She thought she was a freaking movie star."
A few months after she left Trump and his show, she was approached by Microsoft. The software giant wanted her to be one of three judges on a reality show they were developing. The concept never made it to TV, though. Kepcher started her own company, Carolyn & Co., where she has been working ever since.
She said her goal in founding the company was to ' provide a broad array of services and assistance to career women' given her background, experience and 'very unique perspective on what it takes to become a successful woman in today’s competitive marketplace.'