Randal D. Pinkett (born 1971) is an American business consultant who in 2005 was the winner of season four of the reality television show The Apprentice. Pinkett is the first African American to win the US version of The Apprentice. With an educational background in engineering and business, Pinkett is both a Rhodes Scholar and a Walter Byers Scholar, and holds five academic degrees. Before entering the reality show, Pinkett had already established a career in business and had become co-founder of business consulting firm BCT Partners in 2001. As winner of The Apprentice Season 4 in December 2005, Pinkett undertook a yearlong apprenticeship with Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After The Apprentice, Pinkett has continued as chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, while also acting as a public speaker and appearing on later editions of the show, and on CEO Exchange; he has also entered politics. Early life Raised in East Windsor, New Jersey, Pinkett graduated from Hightstown High School in neighboring Hightstown. He began attending Rutgers University in 1989 and graduated summa cum laude in 1994, with a BS in electrical engineering. Pinkett is the first African American from Rutgers to become a Rhodes Scholar. He went on to attend the University of Oxford from 1994 to 1996 as a member of Keble College, where he earned an MSc in computer science. He then attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1996 to 1998, where he graduated with a second MS, this time in electrical engineering, and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management through the Leaders for Global Operations program. He continued his education at MIT, where he earned a PhD in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory in 2001. Pinkett's PhD thesis is titled "Creating Community Connections: Sociocultural Constructionism and an Asset-Based Approach to Community Technology and Community Building." The Apprentice In 2005, 34-year-old Pinkett, along with 17 other contestants, entered the Season 4 of The Apprentice. His wife downloaded the application form, planting the idea of auditioning for the show in his mind. The Apprentice is a reality television series which premiered in January 2004, in which American entrepreneur Donald Trump uses a series of tasks and a process of elimination to ultimately select one candidate for a yearlong apprenticeship with one of his companies. The fourth season began filming in May 2005 and began airing September 2005;