As the face of Channel 4’s new business reality TV series, The Profit, multimillionaire investor Eric Collins will inevitably find himself being compared to Sir Alan Sugar, but the two men couldn’t have less in common. The Apprentice star might choose to be chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce bigger than some apartments, but Collins doesn’t own a car in Britain. Sugar may be known for giving his contestants a hard time, but Collins is not a fan of “yelling at people”. “I haven’t found it to be a very effective strategy,” says the elegant 54-year-old American with dual British citizenship. Furthermore, Collins doesn’t reside in a mansion in Essex but in an apartment on London’s Bankside; he not only doesn’t have the habit of
INTERVIEW
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Eric Collins, 54, photographed at the Cadogan hotel in London
TOM JACKSON
The Times