Although the young Scot stepped aside from the show’s £250,000 investment and the chance to be told “you’re hired” for health reasons, he praised the regular comments around his “professionalism, skills set and work ethic” from the judges on Lord Alan Sugar’s contest.

He said he felt he had achieved the goal of showcasing Scottish business and paving the way for the next stage of his own business journey.

His latest venture is to launch his existing theatre school and college as a franchise offering across the UK and beyond, at a time when the business is heading towards its first £1 million annual turnover and on the verge of launching its first degree course.

With a new headquarters in Glasgow and a second site in Edinburgh, the next step is to create flagship city franchises, he said.

He said seven weeks under the tutelage of Lord Sugar was a whirlwind but the legwork had been going on long beforehand.

“I feel like for the past five, six years, all I’ve done is work,” he said. “The past year is probably the first time I have ever taken time away from my desk.”

The 26-year-old, who is from Cambuslang and has a BA (Hons) in Drama, has appeared in productions across the BBC as well as on stage at the Citizen’s and Pavilion theatres.

'Being invited out to NYC to perform on the Tartan Day Parade will be hard to top' (Image: Reece Donnelly)

He said: “Straight away after leaving school I headed to the University of Sunderland, and go back regularly to inspire the next generation of performer and make them understand that there is so much more to this industry than waiting on a call from River City.

“It was pretty clear that from the get-go that I wanted to do something that was not only for me but something for kids, young people, and now I am the proud owner and founder of the Theatre School of Scotland, the Theatre College of Scotland and I’m also a director and talent agent at KR Management.

“The theatre school and the college has been everything and more. It has been the world for us.

“It is just an amazing story, to go back six years ago, I hired my own primary school and I think I had about 40 kids and now to fast forward we have two locations, an HQ in Glasgow and around 600 part-time students that attend and we’ve got 20 full-timers that now study full-time at the college.”

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He continued: “We use homegrown talent on every show that we work on from Outlander to River City. Even your Bat Girls that come in and film for a couple of weeks, they need Scottish talent and we are the home of that.

“Over the past five years we have worked religiously to get in those lists and on those desks of the people in power.

“Now we have amazing relationships with the big powerhouses like the Euston Films, and the David Walliams productions and now we are just so grateful that we have the ability to place Scottish kids on these shows.

“We’ve had some amazing claims to fame within the past few years. We were in the Matilda movie and we’ve got kids that have been out filming in Italy, and I think that it has just been so inspiring for us to watch this as a business owner. The scale of this is pretty massive.”

Mr Donnelly said: “Six years down the line, last year we spent probably a hell of a lot more money than I ever imagined in making our HQ in Glasgow purpose fit to be a college and university.

“We are slap bang in the middle of the city centre now in Stockwell Place.

“We made the decision to have everything glass-fronted because I wanted the parents to come in and have viewing rooms.

“No matter where you come into the building everything can be seen through the glass panels. It is an amazing place to be part of and I think for us it is now just about taking it up a level.”

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He said: “After 11 months of creating my baby into a franchise model I can now let you know that that is where we are going.

“Where it is quite interesting is the type of people that are coming to us because they have got wind of it.

“It is people who have been in soaps and who have been in shows for like 15 years who are thinking ‘I might get killed off next Christmas and I’ll need to back myself and my family up’.

“At the moment we are still in the development stage of creating the flagship locations so there will be flagship locations and there will be territories.

“What they get provided with is a start-up kit from your first 12 months lessons, how to recruit, how to brand, how to find the right location.”

He continued: “We as an organisation are so close to £1 million turnover that I can see it in the distance and with the help of an amazing team I would like to believe that we will hit it before the end of the year, and I think that is all I will say to everyone.”

A flagship would expect to see 200 to 250 students within 18 months under the franchise plan, he said.

“If we can get it to 200 students they will have £500,000 turnover, and probably be over that probably in about two years with the right plan in place.”

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It includes the training academy, running production companies, panto at the SECC every year, holiday camps, and a talent agency.

He accepts that with the attention of the likes of The Apprentice “you are going to get a bit of heat”, but looks to the benefits.

The last intake with Lord Sugar, centre (Image: BBC)

“I’ve yet to find another Scottish businessman who at 25 was on a traineeship with Lord Sugar for seven weeks.

“You know what, love him or hate him, I have so much respect for the man. He is a business tycoon.

“I was the first Scottish person in ten years and so many of the team have said there’s a reason why we held out and I’m just so grateful to have the experience of it.

“It is a network of people that you will never lose.

“I would like to imagine I could still phone Lord Sugar … and say ‘can you dig me out of this one?’

“I will always be a part of it and I look forward to seeing the next bunch.”

However, he added: “I have completely exposed myself to the public in the past year and the rewards far outweigh any negative. The opportunities are endless.

“I don’t know what the next year entails for the TV life but there have been a lot of exciting offers and it is just about weighing up the right one.”

Q&A  

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

NYC, Dubai, Europe, Caribbean. Last year we travelled to NYC to represent Scotland at the Tartan Day Parade, I took 90 young performers from Scotland to perform at various government events. It was a pinch-me moment.

When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?

I always wanted to be a business owner that’s business was a household name. I originally wanted to have a product-based business which would be in everyone’s home. There’s something so inspiring about Fairy Liquid, everyone uses it everyone buys it, everyone needs it.

But now I have Theatre School of Scotland and Theatre College of Scotland. I want it to be the go-to in Scotland and franchise them out across the UK, Europe and Middle-East.

What was your biggest break in business?

It must be being invited out to NYC to perform on the Tartan Day Parade and open it, for a theatre school from Scotland to be performing to American Government and Karen Gillan, it will be hard to top.

What was your worst moment in business?

We took on a unit pre-Covid and post covid building regulations meant we had to change the full build and requirements, why did I ever sign a lease halfway through a pandemic it added £40,000 to the spend of putting in the correct ventilation regulations in.

Who do you most admire and why?

I love a real Scottish success story like Mike Sutar, but also respect someone like Sir Tom Hunter who gives back so much. My biggest aim is to be able to inspire and educate but also to give back what I can to the younger generation.

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to?

I am obsessed with The Diary of a CEO podcast and also currently reading The Third Door by Alex Banayan and is the best motivational book I have come across yet.