Dr. Randal Pinkett: The Next Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey?

It was recently reported in numerous media outlets that New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine may tap Dr. Randal Pinkett to run as his running mate in the upcoming gubernatorial race. Just who exactly is Dr. Randal Pinkett?

You might remember him as the winner of the fourth season of NBC's The Apprentice. The brainchild of Mark Burnett and Donald Trump, The Apprentice pits contestants against one another in business related tasks for a chance to win a one-year employment contract at Donald Trump's Trump Organization or one of its subsidiaries, as well as to raise their own business profile nationally.

Dr. Randal Pinkett was born in Philadelphia, Pennyslvania in 1971 to Leslie Pinkett and Elizabeth Pinkett. He attended Hightstown High School in Hightstown, New Jersey, and then went on to amass an impressive five college degrees: a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University; an M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Oxford University; and an S.M. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and MBA, and a Ph.D., all from MIT (his thesis was entitled "Creating Community Connections: Sociocultural Constructionism and an Asset-Based Approach to Community Technology and Community Building"). While at Rutgers he earned a Rhodes Scholarship, the first African-American at Rutgers to do so. He also won the Walter Byers Scholarship, awarded to the NCAA's top-scholar athletes; he was eligible as captain of Rutgers varsity men's track and field team.

Upon graduation, he co-founded BCT Partners, "a multimillion dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm based in Newark, NJ" of which he currently serves as CEO. The firm, which was partially inspired by his graduate and doctoral work, provides consulting services in the "areas of housing and community development, economic development, human services, government, healthcare and education" and has serviced a number of Fortune 500 clients including Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.

In 2005, upon winning The Apprentice, he worked for a year at Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, NJ, and became a sought after speaker and spokesperson, appearing on television programs such as The Today Show, and representing such organizations as Verizon and New Jersey Reads. In 2007, he released his first book Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business, followed by the audio book The No-Money Down CEO: How to Start Your Dream Business with Little or No Cash.

He lives in Somerset, NJ, with his wife Zahara Wadud-Pinkett and their daughter, Amira Leslie.

Sources

Claire Heininger, Pinkett pitches for No. 2 spot on ticket, NJ.com

Dr. Randal Pinkett, Biography, Dr. Randal Pinkett