Apprentice winner ditched Lord Sugar but hired by a Dragons' Den star

THE APPRENTICE winner Yasmina Siadatan may have walked away from Lord Alan Sugar but was quickly snapped up Dragons' Den star James Caan.

Hull-born Yasmina Siadatan landed a high-flying job at Lord Sugar’s Amscreen Healthcare Company following her win in 2009.

Despite making one of the biggest blunders in the show's history by confusing the price of Sandalwood oil and Cedarwood oil during the perfume making task - Lord Sugar still wanted the businesswoman to join his team.

In an excruciating moment, you could see the penny drop as it dawned on her the extent of her mistake and said: "No, half of 450...s***."

She went onto beat favourite Kate Walsh in the final after Lord Sugar said he followed his gut instinct in picking her.

After winning the BBC One show, Yasmina said: "I feel very lucky. Life is brilliant."

However, the former restaurant owner fell pregnant four months into her £100k-a-year role after enjoying a whirlwind romance with colleague Andrew Hepburn.

Yasmina worked for Lord Alan for 12 months but chose not to return after her maternity leave.

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She was due to return in January 2012, but told bosses she was expecting another baby.

At the time, a spokesman for Lord Sugar said: "Both sides would have liked to work with each other for longer but Lord Sugar knows ­family must come first.

"Yasmina did a great job and the door is always open should she ever want to return."

After taking time off to have her two sons Rupert and Roman, Yasmina was headhunted by former Dragon’s Den star James Caan.

James, who appeared on series four of Dragons' Den, had just been appointed Chairman of the UK Government's Start Up Loans Scheme.

The businessman brought Yasmina in a Head of Operations role in a Private Equity firm.

"Once I had met various people in the organisation I was sold on the company as a whole, especially James himself, so it was just a case of them finding a role that would suit me," said Yasmina.

"It wasn’t an advertised role but something that James matched my skills to, which is how a lot of people are brought into the company."

The savvy entrepreneur then worked as creative director of Start Up Loans and as Head of Marketing at a fintech firm.

She also ran as a Conservative candidate for a by-election in Henley in March 2017.

She told Berkshire Live last May: "I can reach out to Alan or James if I needed for sure. I enjoyed working with them both and we left on great terms."

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