Lee McQueen

Apprentice winner Lee McQueen has emerged from the experience as a grounded and experienced businessman who is now focusing on training raw sales talent.  With two successful years with Lord Alan Sugar under his belt, the former IT recruiter has just left the Amshold organisation and launched the Raw Talent Academy to prevent businesses wasting money on the wrong sort of recruits.

The 32-year-old Oxfordshire based businessman knows that sales have been regarded as the Cinderella of business but he says it is now going to the ball with his help. It is a great opportunity for top talent who might not have paper credentials but are the sort of go getters and hunters that businesses need in recession.

He is bubbling over with excitement about his new project saying:

“With any type of business you have to have a sales function. Whether you are a one man band or a multi billion pound organisation you have to have someone selling it.  It is a major part of business and there are people out there who could be terrific sales people who are being overlooked. It’s about finding those skills and supplying the platform to bring those skills into the open which is what I am going to do.”

He has also become a public speaker talking about his experiences on the hit BBC show, the tremendous career boost appearing on the programme has given him and working closely with the tough talking boss known more for firing than hiring.

Lee says the opportunity was a chance of a lifetime and has supplied a wealth of experiences which have boosted his confidence and given him the kick start to take risks and grow his own entrepreneurial ideas.

He then joined Amshold to become director of an exciting new digital signage business called Amscreen run by Lord Sugar’s son, Simon Sugar.  As Development Director of the media advertising business aimed initially at the Petrol and Healthcare industries, which harnesses wireless technology, Lee was responsible for the development and integration of the business both commercially and internally.

He helped Amscreen become the UK market leader and said: “I was extremely fortunate, unlike other apprentices who were just given projects, I got to start a business, with the expertise of the Sugar’s.  I learnt about the finance, how products are put together and how to integrate businesses which we acquired along the way.  To sum up, it was a massive amount of experience in setting up an organisation which I can use now that I have decided to run my own business.”

The Raw Talent Academy provides him with the opportunity to supply training in-house and demonstrate his own special talents and experience.

“The aim of Raw Talent Academy is to provide Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) and Corporate organisations the opportunity to build internal sales academies into long term staffing plans and to encourage organisations to look at the wider talent we have in the UK and not just graduates. Raw Talent Academy specifically searches for talent that has not had the best start in working life or the best education; but offer key skills hard work, determination and above all commitment.”

Lee McQueen – Background

Lee has ten years in IT Recruitment under his belt, six of which were with Capita Resourcing. After working his way through the business, Lee ended his career at Capita as the Sales and Delivery manager, heading up the IT recruitment division.

When he left, the division turned over £32million and had around 30 staff, the majority were revenue generating.  Lee also set up an academy within his division, designed to train and recruit staff with limited experience and turn them into fully fledged sales consultants deployed within the business. This and other experiences are the building blocks of the new venture.

Lee constantly demonstrates his desire and passion to succeed.  When his parents split up as a teenager he had the courage to take on a mortgage at 18 and cope with two jobs to finance it.  When other teenagers were having fun he was taking on responsibilities.  Since taking part in the programme he has stayed the pace in other ways and has found the time to take part in two half marathons and the London marathon (April 2009) – demonstrating once again his constant passion and desire to succeed.

Speaker audiences will learn from Lee McQueen what it takes to be:

• A winner
• Social Enterprise
• Mentoring
• Passion to succeed
• Recruitment insights
• Sales and Business Development
• Highs and Lows of Media hype
• The Apprentice