The making of the man

Tim Campbell doesn’t relish the limelight. He grins and bears our photo session, held high in a Canary Wharf office block. When the photographer asks him to gaze out of the window the view takes in Stratford in east London, where he was brought up and still lives.

It is surprising that someone who spent weeks performing tasks in front of a film crew during the first series of the BBC’s hit show The Apprentice back in 2005 should be uncomfortable in front of the camera lens. But then Mr Campbell always preferred to get on with the work, while his competitors fought for airtime - which is why he eventually won.

The original apprentice, 32, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s UK Housing Awards, celebrating the best projects in the social housing sector. Award hopefuls at the event - run by Inside Housing and the Chartered Institute of Housing and held at London’s Park Lane Hilton next Wednesday - will hear from Mr Campbell about the Bright Ideas Trust, the social enterprise he launched this time last year. The trust helps young people aged between 16 and 30 who are disadvantaged or not in education, employment or training to start their own businesses. ‘Our remit is to help those who couldn’t normally get involved in business,’ Mr Campbell explains.

The married father-of-one grew up in social housing and says that the ‘ethos of housing associations’ inspires him. ‘Because it’s about giving people the basic things they should have,’ he explains.

After his reality TV show win, Mr Campbell was heralded as a role model for young, aspiring business people. He has embraced this position wholeheartedly, getting heavily involved in numerous charities and initiatives.

He’s also made friends in high places. In 2007 he was appointed Child Ambassador for London by then minister for children Beverley Hughes, which sees him speaking out on issues that impact on young people in the capital.

More recently, during last month’s Conservative Party conference, Mr Campbell appeared on a promotional video for the party’s Get Britain Working campaign to help people find jobs. ‘This is a real opportunity to do things differently and we can’t waste it,’ he stated.

Mr Campbell will not say whether this is him nailing his colours to the opposite political mast to his former boss, Sir Alan, now Lord Sugar, who was appointed as the government’s ‘enterprise champion’ in June. But the younger man does think that with the recession causing rising unemployment among young people, now is the time to step things up. ‘It is an opportune moment to do something different, particularly around educating young people about the opportunities that are available to them with enterprise,’ he says.

For Mr Campbell himself, this education came through appearing on The Apprentice and the consequent job as project director of the health and beauty division at Lord Sugar’s company Amstrad. ‘I come from a very humble background,’ he says. ‘Just my mum brought us up.’
He adds that his apprentice experience ‘demystified’ the world of business for him. ‘People who come from social housing write it off as an option - they may not think they have the right to be in that environment - but I learned to understand the rules of engagement. The experience gave me confidence, insight and contacts. It allowed me to think of [starting my own business] as an option.’

When he applied for The Apprentice at the age of 27 Mr Campbell, a Middlesex University psychology graduate, was a marketing and planning manager for London Underground, now Transport for London. He admits that he was looking for a way out. ‘The public sector is very bureaucratic for individuals who are motivated,’ he explains.

Since leaving Amstrad to branch out on his own in 2007 he has formed the Bright Ideas Trust, as well as the agency Apprentice Speakers and a business consultancy, Campbell Esquire.

Margaret Mountford, Lord Sugar’s steely sidekick on the TV series, is a trustee at the Bright Ideas Trust. ‘The Apprentice made a big change in Tim’s life,’ explains the former corporate lawyer and non-executive director of Amstrad. ‘It made different chances available to him. But he feels that young people shouldn’t have to go on to a reality show to strike out on their own.’

Mr Campbell sees similarities between himself and the people he works with at the trust. ‘When I was on The Apprentice I had no fear because I had nothing to lose - and that’s the beauty of working with young people nowadays,’ he explains. ‘There’s an incredible energy and fearlessness that really needs to be harnessed and focused on positive things,’ he says.

Breaking stereotypes

Since it officially started trading in January the trust, which is funded by donations and corporate sponsorship, has helped hundreds of young people through its business education programmes. It has directly invested an average of £10,000 into each of 10 new businesses, including a cleaning company, a film production company, and a hairdresser. A further five start-up businesses are about to receive capital of up to £25,000 from the trust. Once running, these new companies can access business information through trust advisors and mentors.

‘I’m incredibly proud of the young people who are breaking the stereotype of what young people are supposedly about,’ says Mr Campbell.

On the day that I meet Mr Campbell, he is limping. In September he took part in the Great North Run to raise money for Christian Aid, but he ‘went back to the gym too quickly afterwards’, he explains.

Pushing himself to this extent seems to be characteristic of Mr Campbell, who spreads his time between his family, his business initiatives, the trust, being a governor an east London school, and supporting charities.

He doesn’t intend to stop there. As the loans given to business start-ups are repaid, the Bright Ideas Trust will be able to expand its work. Mr Campbell plans to roll out its business education programme throughout the UK, working closely with schools.

He says that awareness of different forms of enterprise is lacking within the education system, and adds that a general ignorance about the work done by housing associations is proof of this.

‘Housing associations are very successful business models doing a lot of good,’ he says. ‘I understand the importance of having a home at the end of the day - the importance of having that grounding,’ he concludes. ‘Before The Apprentice, the very first place I moved into with my now wife was owned by a housing association in east London. We had to start from somewhere.’

For Mr Campbell, it seems, social housing was a very good place to start.

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