Michelle Dewberry

Michelle Dewberry – 2006 Winner of The Apprentice. Keynote Business Speaker.

Michelle Dewberry is a truly inspirational lady who shot to national fame when she beat competition from over 15,000 people to become the winner of the second series of the hit BBC show ‘The Apprentice’. Lord Alan summed her up when he called her “hard working” “very focused” “organised” “committed” and acknowledged she has “worked her way up to achieve great things” Prior to entering The Apprentice Michelle had carved out a successful city career as a self employed consultant, giving her a salary well in excess of £150,000 before the age of 25.

Michelle Dewberry’s story is one of true grit, determination and achieving success against all the odds. Coming from a deprived background, Michelle ignored school and chose instead to get business experience “in the real world” and started contributing to local businesses at the age of 13. As a teenager, Michelle found herself off the rails. She had few qualifications, a partner who was in prison and a social life which consisted of doing everything she shouldn’t. At the age of 17, Michelle suffered a devastating blow when she lost her older sister in tragic circumstances. The tragedy spurred Michelle to turn her life around and make a true success of things to make her family proud.

She returned to learning, completing an Apprenticeship to gain skills and qualifications as well as putting herself through night schools to gain the qualifications she had missed from school. To financially support herself she worked three jobs each Saturday.

At 18, Michelle Dewberry took one of Hull’s major employers by storm after cold calling them and requesting a job as a manager. She was offered a junior post in the IT department but swiftly engineered her progress through the ranks until, by the age of 21, she was managing the biggest account the company held. In subsequent years, Michelle’s career went from strength to strength as she created opportunities to work for some of Europe’s biggest Telecom / ISP companies.

At the age of 24, Michelle saw an opportunity to take her skills freelance and branched out as a self employed consultant. This saw her working at board level, delivering several multi-million pound Business Transformation programmes.

Her decision to apply for The Apprentice was motivated by her strong desire to develop her business experience under the aegis of one of the country’s most successful businessmen.

She has now gathered her varied experiences and has channel them into the creation of her own consultancy offering professional advice and services to businesses wishing to relocate part or all of their operations offshore. Michelle’s company also offers services such as project management and feasibility studies for new company ventures.

Michelle Dewberry delivers a range of coaching and motivational programmes to businesses and individuals alike to help people and teams achieve their potential.

Michelle loves to give something back and supports a number of charities. She is an Ambassador of The Princes Trust, Patron of the Youth Enterprise Programme and heavily involved with the NSPCC.

Her inspiring autobiography ‘Anything is Possible’ was released on 1st March 2007.

Speeches / Workshops:

• Destination Nowhere’ – Purpose, Priority and Goal Setting.
• Game of Jenga anyone?’ – Success when the odds are stacked against you.
• One in a Million’ – Decide the life you want.
• Humorous insight into The Apprentice, behind the scenes.

Topics:

• Motivation (Personal & Business)
• Inspiration (Personal & Business)
• Business
• Teamwork