By Tracy Manforte Sweet

Donald Trump called him a maniac, a disaster, a genius and a skillful leader—all in one breath.

For Tarek Saab, of Fort Worth, it was just another day in the boardroom on NBC’s "The Apprentice." For two months last fall, the Saint Anselm College Presidential Scholar left his job as a global marketing manager at Texas Instruments for a chance to lead one of Trump’s multimillion-dollar real estate ventures.

Saab’s boardroom "brawl" with Charmaine, which led to both players’ downfall, was one of the series’ more explosive verbal exchanges. "You have a good day; you have a bad day. You’re a wonderful leader; you’re bad as a follower," Trump said. "You have these outstanding moments and then you have these moments of great, great failure...Tarek, you’re fired!"

An hour later, Saab recalls with a laugh, he and Charmaine enjoyed dinner together in New York City. He blames his outburst on exhaustion and says there is no animosity between the two competitors. "It’s very difficult to keep your composure in a high stress situation when you haven’t slept much in days."

The ups and downs of Tarek Saab’s network television debut were there for all of prime time America to see, and for Saab and his family some of it was tough to watch.

Those who know him well, including Sue Gabert of Campus Ministry and Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., describe him as smart, witty and competitive, while compassionate and down-to-earth.

What did NBC’s producers think of him?

"I think I was cast an egomaniac MENSA boy…a very controversial character who seemed to get on Trump’s bad side very early on." MENSA, an elite society whose members have an IQ in the top 2 percent of the population, became a bit of a joke among players, he says. "Coffeemaker’s broken; ask the MENSA guy. Need to do long division; go see the MENSA guy."

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