During his sixteen week job interview on The Apprentice, Perdew was challenged in tasks ranging from selling ice-cream and designing a women’s fashion line to the creation of a full marketing campaign for Pepsi-Cola. Notably, in the final stages of the series, he went under the microscope with the CEOs and leaders of four of America’s foremost businesses: Unilever HPC, Bear Stearns, The New England Patriots and Pepsi-Cola. All four business leaders agreed that Perdew, more than any other candidate, ‘has what it takes’ to work and manage some of Donald Trump’s most important projects. Trump agreed and hired Perdew.
During his year with Trump, Perdew worked on several high-profile projects including 40 Wall Street (1.3M square feet of commercial real estate in downtown Manhattan, Trump Tower Tampa (50 story upscale condominium in Tampa, FL) and Trump Ice (Trump branded bottled water). At the end of his year contract with Trump, Perdew decided to move on to pursue the venture capital fund and several other exciting projects.
On the real estate front, he is working closely with his family to develop a $50M 25-project self storage company in Florida and a 600-acre fishing and hunting preserve in Montana. He is also the host of GI Factory, a series that examines military technologies and where they are made on The Military Channel.
Perdew published his first book in 2006, Take Command: 10 Leadership Principles I Learned in the Military and Put to Work for Donald Trump. The book explores the ties between military training and business success. Supported by interviews with some of America’s leading business icons this book provides an inspiring message to those involved in the military and invaluable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs or anyone embarking on a new career.
Prior to winning The Apprentice, Perdew held multiple Chairman and CEO positions. As the Chairman and co-founder of www.MotorPride.com, he took the lessons he’s learned from a history of successful entrepreneurial ventures and brought them together to build the perfect community website for car, truck and motorcycle enthusiasts. He sold MotorPride to ZAG.com in 2006. As the former President of CoreObjects Software, he provided leadership in strategy, sales, business development, legal, finance and operations. As the former Acting President for www.eteamz.com, Perdew helped secure Angel and VC financing, grew the value of the company through acquisitions and strategic relationships, and led the negotiations for the successful sale of the company to www.Active.com in 2001. eteamz now serves over 2.5 million amateur sports teams. Perdew was also the co-founder, President & CEO of K12 Productions, LLC, an event marketing and production company that he grew to profitability. The Layoff Lounge, K12’s premier nationwide platform, was a networking event for job seekers, hiring companies, recruiters and all of their associated service providers. Prior to eteamz and K12 Productions, Perdew was a strategy manager at Deloitte Consulting in the technology practice.
Perdew also served as a military intelligence officer in the US Army and successfully completed both Airborne and Ranger training. He holds a BS degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, and earned his MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and his JD from the UCLA School of Law.
A proven businessman who time and again has raised the bar, Perdew delivers unprecedented results with relentless enthusiasm. His military training, academic study, and substantial experience have instilled a strong sense of duty and integrity. Overall, he is a role model for the youth of America, a symbol of the success that can be attained from hard work, discipline and sacrifice. He donates his time as a celebrity spokesperson for both Big Brothers/Sisters (www.bbbs.org) and the National Guard Youth Challenge Program (www.ngycp.org). He is also donating royalties from Take Command to the United Service Organization (www.uso.org).