AN Edgware entrepreneur survived beyond the first week in BBC hit show The Apprentice even though she lead the girls' team to defeat in the first task.

Gabrille Omar, 29, who runs her own architecture practice among other ventures, is one of 16 competitors from whom the business empresario Lord Sugar will select a winner to hand a £250,000 investment and a partnership opportunity with him.

University of Westminster graduate Ms Omar, whose parents run Captains Cabin fish and chip shop below the family home in Burnt Oak Broadway, was the project manager for the girls' team in the first task, in which the two groups had to buy blank goods, print designs and sell them for a profit.

The girls were hauled into the boardroom when they made less money than the boys, with Ms Omar conceding: "The first couple of hours for me were mental. I admit I wasn't quick on the ball in the beginning."

Some of the other girls blamed the Edgware architecture's 'bad management' for the team's failure but she hit back, saying: "I was very much in control. I never had an argument with anybody.

"I made sure everyone that was under my eye worked to the maximum."

As project manager, Ms Omar was automatically in contention to exit the show and chose fellow contestants Bilyana and Katie to return to the boardroom to see which of them would be leaving.

Lord Sugar said of Ms Omar: "She is a nice, pleasant girl but people are saying she didn't give them any direction."

In the end, he threw Bilyana out of the programme. Another 11 tasks lay ahead until Lord Sugar picks the winner from the final two.