Bill Rancic

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Bill Rancic
Born	May 16, 1971 (1971-05-16) (age 37) Chicago, Illinois
Education	B.S. with cum laude honors (Loyola University Chicago)
Occupation	Entrepreneur, Author, Talk show host
Salary	$250,000
Spouse	Giuliana DePandi (2007 - present)
Website Bill Rancic Online

William "Bill" Rancic (born May 16, 1971) is an American entrepreneur who was the first candidate hired on national television by The Trump Organization at the conclusion of the first season of Donald Trump's reality business show, The Apprentice.

[edit] Biography

Rancic was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in the suburb Orland Park, of Croatian and Irish extraction. Originally, his last name was spelled Rančić (pronounced Ran'tchich). He went to St. Michaels School in Orland, and graduated from Carl Sandburg High School.

Rancic attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois for his freshman year of college, majoring in Criminal Justice with a focus on going to Law School. During this time Rancic's father took a teaching job at Loyola University Chicago, allowing Rancic the free tuition benefit enjoyed by all dependents of faculty members. He eventually received a Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola University, graduating cum laude in 1994.

During his college years Rancic worked at FAO Schwarz as a security guard. Next he took up a boat detailing business on the side^{[citation needed]} prior to starting his online cigar business.

He started his own cigar business, which helped him negotiate the price of a cigar during one of Trump's tasks of negotiation.

[edit] Personal life

Rancic splits his time between Lincoln Park, Chicago and Los Angeles, California.

On December 15, 2006, he became engaged ^[1] to E! News co-host Giuliana DePandi ^[2]. They were married on September 1, 2007, on the island of Capri^[3][4].

[edit] The Apprentice, Season One

Rancic was one of the job applicants in The Apprentice 1 during the spring of 2004, as one of sixteen contestants. Rancic was ultimately hired at the conclusion of the fourteen-week job interview after Donald Trump fired Kwame Jackson for not re-firing Omarosa for her false testimony throughout the final task.

As a result of being the first reality TV star to be hired on national television, Rancic had three minutes to decide which project to manage while in front of an audience of nearly 30 million viewers. Rancic elected to take charge of the construction of the Trump Tower Chicago in his native Chicago, Illinois, on the site of the demolished Chicago Sun-Times building. The other option he had was to oversee and manage a new Trump National Golf Course and resort in Los Angeles, California. The Trump National course was a potential site for season 6 when it is filmed in Los Angeles during 2006.

Most of Trump's advisors thought Bill was the one during the episode "Down to the Wire". In this episode he explained that things not being to his satisfaction is sometimes a blessing but also a curse.

For the final challenge, Rancic had a tough time on the Golf Course task at Briarcliff Manor because most of his teammates thought he would lose. Rancic was so jittery and nervous unlike competitor Kwame Jackson who was laid back. But Rancic succeeded in his task and therefore was hired.

[edit] Career After The Apprentice

Originally Rancic said that after his one-year contract expired for being Donald Trump's Apprentice, he would leave the job and start his own company ^[5]. He instead has opted to remain part of the Trump Organization, and now fills in as a judge when George is away on business. This occurred very often during the fourth season. Although Rancic was a friendly, down to earth contestant, he adopted the difficult and critical demeanor of other members of the Trump Organization.

One of his quotes as a Trump Organization Judge for The Apprentice candidates is: "That's the easy way out." Bill uses this quote to warn any candidate who makes a dumb business move that such moves could be fatal, as in the instance of Jennifer Crisafulli's poor decision making from The Apprentice 2.

Rancic reportedly exposed one of Gold Rush's fatal losing secrets during a boardroom session in Season 5 of The Apprentice when he chastised Bryce for being 25 minutes late for an important meeting with the Arby's executives, and Trump was surprised when Bill Rancic spilled the beans during the initial boardroom.

Bill Rancic is the first Apprentice hired to ever host a Yahoo! Apprentice Blog.

Starting 17 September 2007, Rancic is one of the 3 co-hosts of iVillage's In the Loop with iVillage. The show was renamed and relaunched from the NBC Tower in Chicago after the 06-07 failure ^{[6][7] [8]} of the daytime TV talk show, In the Loop with iVillage. of the original IVillage Live tv show ^[9] in Florida.

[edit] Books by Bill Rancic

• You're Hired (2004) ISBN 0-06-076541-0
• Beyond The Lemonade Stand (2005) ISBN 1-59514-103-0

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Cigars Around the World.com
• Bill Rancic at the Internet Movie Database
• Bill Rancic at TV.com
• The Apprentice: Donald Trump - Bill Rancic - Official Site on Yahoo!
• The Apprentice - Where Are They Now?
• The Apprentice Rules Bill Rancic Bio
• IVillage Official Website