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Microsoft Hires “Apprentice” Exec To Judge Startup Competition

Microsoft has gotten fired “The Apprentice” executive and former Donald Trump right-hand woman Carolyn Kepcher, to take a role as a judge in a Microsoft competition designed to help a startup get its feet off the ground. Kepcher, along with maternity wear entrepreneur Liz Lange and Microsoft VP Chris Caposella, will judge Microsoft’s Ultimate Challenge, where the winner gets $100,000 in seed money, a year of free rent of a storefront/office space in Manhattan, and software to get the business started.

Even the New York Post’s gossip columnists are paying attention, noting where Carolyn was hanging out yesterday:

Former “Apprentice” side kick Carolyn Kepcher at Hello Deli in Times Square today (noon) help ing Microsoft pick the Best Small Business in America.

The contest is to promote the new, free, Office Accounting Express (you can read more about that here).

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Microsoft and The Apprentice; back in February 2005, Verna, a Microsoftie, was a contestant on the show, and wound up becoming one of the most dramatic contestants on any reality show, when she had a breakdown and quit in the second week of the show. Turns out Verna’s written a book about quitting your way out of a dead-end job, but she still works at Microsoft.