Kelly Crawford Perdew (born January 29, 1967) is an American businessman and winner of '' The Apprentice 2''.

Personal Life

Perdew was born in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

and was raised in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. Prior to winning ''The Apprentice'', he was president of CoreObjects, a

software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

outsourcing company based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Perdew attended the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

, earning a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in national security and public affairs in 1989, graduating as the number one ranked cadet in his field of study and in the top 5% of his overall class. While at West Point, Perdew attended Ranger and Airborne training. In addition to his regular studies at West Point, Perdew interned with the

House Armed Services Committee The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee or HASC, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is responsible for funding and oversight of the Department of ...

, spent a semester on "exchange" at the

Naval Academy A naval academy provides education for prospective naval officers. List of naval academies See also

* Military academy {{Authority control Naval academies, Naval lists ...

, and was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

finalist. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

as a

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

officer for three years. After his

honorable discharge A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

as a

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...

, Perdew attended graduate schools at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA), earning a joint JD/MBA degree from the

UCLA School of Law The University of California, Los Angeles School of Law (commonly known as UCLA School of Law or UCLA Law) is the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. History Founded in 1949, the UCLA School of Law is the third oldest of t ...

and the

UCLA Anderson School of Management The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management (branded as UCLA Anderson) is the graduate business school at the University of California, Los Angeles. The school offers MBA (full-time, part-time, executive), Post Graduate Program for Executi ...

, respectively, in 1995. He chose not to practice law after graduation, although during law school he worked part-time at the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

''The Apprentice''

Perdew was 37 when participating in '' The Apprentice 2'' and was the oldest candidate on the show. He was eventually chosen by

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

to be his apprentice, nominally managing the construction of

Trump Place Riverside South is an urban development project in the Lincoln Square, Manhattan, Lincoln Square neighborhood of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Developed by the businessman and later U.S. president Donald Trump ...

on the Upper West Side of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

while promoting it in reality. It was also revealed in '' The Apprentice 3'' finale that Perdew was an executive vice-president for Trump's brand of bottled water, Trump Ice.

Career

Perdew is the Managing Partner for Moonshots Capital – an early-stage angel syndicate. He has personally invested in over 30 early-stage technology companies and acted as a board member or advisor to many including LinkedIn and Pandora. He is the founder & CEO at TargetClose. Prior to founding TargetClose, he was the CEO of Fastpoint Games, a venture-backed leading developer of live data-driven games for the fortune 500 brand set. Fastpoint Games sold to WePlay in December 2011. Prior to Fastpoint Games, he was President of ProElite.com, a social networking site for mixed martial arts. He was also the President of eTeamz with founder Brian Johnson that is now a part of Active Network, LLC and serving over 3 million amateur sports teams. In June 2006, Perdew received a Presidential Appointment from President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

to the Council on Service and Civic Participation. He currently serves on the board of advisors of the Code of Support Foundation, a nonprofit military service organization.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perdew, Kelly 1967 births American business executives American business writers Writers from California Writers from Lexington, Kentucky Living people United States Army officers United States Military Academy alumni UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni UCLA School of Law alumni Businesspeople from Lexington, Kentucky Businesspeople from Florida The Trump Organization employees 21st-century American businesspeople American drink industry businesspeople The Apprentice (American TV series) winners Participants in American reality television series People associated with Gibson Dunn