Background
Perdew was born in Lexington, Kentucky and was raised in Florida and Wyoming.
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Kelly Perdew
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Perdew attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in national security and public affairs in 1989, graduating as the number one ranked cadet in his field of study and in the top 5% of his overall class. After his honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant, Perdew attended graduate schools at the University of California, Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles), earning a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, respectively, in 1995. He chose not to practice law after graduation, although during law school he worked part-time at the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Career
Prior to winning the show, he was president of CoreObjects, a softwaredevelopment outsourcing company based in Los Los Angeles After West Point, Perdew went on to receive Ranger and Airborne training. In addition to his regular studies at West Point, Perdew interned with the House Armed Services Committee, spent a semester on "exchange" at the Naval Academy, and was a finalist in the Rhodes Scholar competition.
He served in the United States Army as a military intelligence officer for three years.
Perdew was 37 when participating in The Apprentice 2 and was the oldest candidate on the show. He was eventually chosen by Donald Trump to be his apprentice, nominally managing the construction of Trump Place located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York but in reality promoting lieutenant
lieutenant was also revealed in The Apprentice 3 finale that Perdew was an executive vice-president for Trump"s brand of bottled water, Trump Ice. Perdew is the Managing Partner for Moonshots Capital – an early stage angel syndicate.
He has personally invested in over 30 early stage technology companies and acted as a board member or advisor to many including LinkedIn and Pandora.
Prior to founding TargetClose he was the Chief Executive Officer of Fastpoint Games, a venture-backed leading developer of live data-driven games for the fortune 500 brand set. Fastpoint Games sold to WePlay in December 2011. Prior to Fastpoint Games, he was President of ProElite.com, a social networking site for mixed martial arts
Perdew filmed nine episodes of a show called G.I Factory on the Military Channel, which did not get picked up for a second series.
In addition, he has also done a commercial titled "Today"s Military" with Donald Trump, involving him accepting a "military challenge" from him. Perdew is also the author of Take Command: 10 Leadership Principles Learned in the Military And Put To Work Foreign Donald Trump () The book focuses on leadership principles that are necessary for success in business and life and includes interviews with business/military icons such as Ross Perot, Bill Coleman and Roger Staubach.
Perdew founded a company called American Family Protection, Incorporated. to provide government approved training modules to United States. families on how to respond to a terrorist attack. The interactive Civil Defense is called the Terrorist Attack Survival Kit.
In June 2006, Perdew received a Presidential Appointment from President George West. Bush to the Council on Service and Civic Participation.
