Ruggiero To Star on ‘Apprentice’

From inside the boards to inside the boardroom.

That’s the transition Olympian and former Harvard ice hockey star Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04 will make after being selected in an online fan vote from a pool of Winter Games standouts to appear in the upcoming sixth season of the popular reality show, The Apprentice, debuting in January.

The program, the brainchild of real estate mogul Donald Trump, pits two teams against each other in tasks testing their character, business acumen, and entrepreneurship, with the least apt candidate—in the eyes of The Donald—getting eliminated each week to the sound of his trademark “You’re fired!” catch phrase.

“The results are in, and I’m thrilled with the viewers’ decision,” said Trump, the show’s executive producer, in a press release. “We’ll see if Angela can ice the competition as we take the boardroom to the West Coast.”

After emerging from an assemblage of a dozen Olympic athletes to win the viewers’ poll, Ruggiero joins 17 other cast members for the nationally-televised multi-week “interview,” with a $250,000, year-long apprenticeship under Trump the prize awaiting the winner.

Ruggiero is one of women’s hockey’s biggest stars, a dominant force on the ice and a recognizable face away from the rink. During her time in Cambridge, Ruggiero helped pilot the Crimson to a national title in her freshman season, earned the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in the country after her senior campaign in 2004, and was named an All-American all four years. In her 127 games in a Harvard uniform, she led the team to a stunning 109-13-5 record.

On the international stage, she is a three-time Olympian, earning a gold medal as the youngest member of the U.S. squad in 1998, silver in Salt Lake City, and bronze this past February in Turin.

Ruggiero carries on a tradition of Harvard affiliates to participate in the reality show, including Kwame Jackson, the Business School graduate who was the inaugural season’s runner-up. Ruggiero’s Crimson ties warranted mention from reality show guru Mark Burnett, The Apprentice’s creator, in the official press release.

“I’m delighted to have an Olympian in our cast, especially one who went to Harvard,” Burnett said. “It’s a unique hiring opportunity for Donald Trump if she’s lucky enough to win.”

Although the cast is balanced by gender, Ruggiero is indeed familiar with competing in male-dominated environments such as the boardroom. The consensus world’s best female defenseman, standing at 5’10, made ice hockey history in January 2005 when she skated in a game with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League alongside her brother Bill, the squad’s goalie, making her the first non-netminding woman to log significant ice time in a men’s professional game.

Ruggiero also has a geographic attachment to this edition of The Apprentice, the first to be shot on location in California. Ruggiero, born in Michigan and educated in the Northeast, was raised in the Los Angeles area.

Although not a businesswoman by training—she received her B.A. in Government in 2004—Ruggiero could use her education and hockey-bred knack for quick thinking to excel in the challenges. The sassy skater showed off her business side this spring, with the release of her autobiography “Breaking the Ice.” The book represented Ruggiero’s attempt to capitalize financially on her popularity and success in the niche sport and signaled to her longtime mentor, Harvard head coach Katey Stone, that Ruggiero’s ambitions extend beyond the blue lines—a schema continued in her Apprentice bid.

“She was one of the best players we’ve ever had and a great kid,” Stone said in an earlier interview. “[But] she’s much more than a hockey player. Angela has done a lot of things that are so separate from hockey that give her a lot of balance.”

A call to Ruggiero’s voice mail revealed that she may already have been sequestered for the taping of the show.

“Hi, this is Angela. I won’t be able to return your call until the middle of July,” the message began.

Known for her lethal slapshot, of which she fired so many during her hockey career, Ruggiero hopes she won’t be on the receiving end of any firings as she seeks to become the next Apprentice.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.