Posted on: Sunday, February 22, 2004
'Apprentice' contestant Henry rises above rest
By Del Jones
USA Today
If the essence of "The Apprentice" reality show is to uncover leadership qualities, Amy Henry has forged ahead as the favorite to win the $250,000-a-year job with Donald Trump.
Trump fired Seattle stockbroker Tammy Lee at the end of Thursday's episode, but the opening minutes could not have escaped the boss' notice as he considers who will be left by the final episode, scheduled for April 15, the federal income tax filing deadline.
Trump needed to even the teams again. He told the four-person Protˇgˇ team to select anyone from the six-person Versacorp team and, without hesitation, Protˇgˇ chose the 30-year-old Henry of Austin.
Two weeks ago when Trump abandoned the men-vs.-women format, he had the teams choose sides — playground style. The first pick then was Henry.
On Thursday's episode, Trump gave each team a run-down Brooklyn apartment to renovate and lease within 72 hours. Protˇgˇ got more rent, leaving Henry as the only contestant among the original 16 yet to be on a losing team.
In real life, Henry works for BetweenMarkets, a 30-employee business-to-business software company that has five Standard & Poor's 500 firms as its clients. Henry manages the account with fiber-optics giant JDS Uniphase.
Her real-life boss, John Price, calls Henry a fighter and says he's not surprised that she has risen above the competition on the show when her reality comes with customers and co-workers "breathing down her neck."
"When you're selling million-dollar software deals, there is a lot of emotion to be managed," Price says. "The Trump thing is a dead fit for this girl's experience. Dealing with requests for ridiculous things in a short time is what she does."
Price says Henry has "an amazing network of friends," which has become a distraction as they call from around the country in response to her sudden fame. "She turns it into a sales cycle for us. She's going to capitalize on opportunities. That's her personality."
Many business leaders say failure is a crucial educational step toward success, and Henry is one of the paper millionaires of her generation who had dot-com stock options that went bust.
She graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&T and in the top of her class when getting an MBA at Texas Christian University. In an NBC press release, she says she is "a ruthless business woman with a Southern sense of charm."
She told NBC that the person she admires most (other than Trump) is Martha Stewart, because she knows "when to buy, when to sell and when to bake."
