October 2012 For immediate release

Graduate shortlisted for Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Businessman and Leeds Metropolitan graduate John Macleod is in the running for a 10,000 funding prize after winning the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award.

The 23-year-old entrepreneur, who set up his design company Lux Creations with the support of the Universitys business start-up programme, received the award for his first product, Clear Notes, and will be presented with 1,000 funding for his business.

In addition the recognition gives him an automatic place in Shell LiveWIREs 'Hot 40' list, putting him in the running for their Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012, and a 10,000 prize.

John, who studied BSc (Hons) Sports Coaching at Leeds Met and graduated in 2010, commented: I am honoured and delighted to receive this award. The success of Clear Notes is going from strength to strength and it is a product that I believe to be innovative and a one that I am very proud of. Clear Notes are re-usable, transparent, sticky notes that allow the user to view any document underneath the note, whilst making annotations. I came up with the idea when I worked for an insurance firm in 2010. Id regularly find myself dealing with a lot of documents and it was tricky trying to make notes without actually writing on the papers. Thats when I realised there was a simple solution to the problem and the idea for Clear Notes was born. The best thing about the product is their versatility and the fact that they can be

used again and again. We have developed the product in a number of sizes as well with our own marker pen to use which can be wiped off the Clear Notes easily. I launched Lux Creations via Leeds Metropolitans QU2 business start-up programme and it has really helped me both financially and strategically from the word go. With the Universitys support I have been able to take my ideas and turn them into a reality a successful business with marketable and exciting products. The winner for Shell LiveWIREs Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012 will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on Wednesday 14 November.

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For further details please contact Julia Williams in the Communications team at Leeds Met on 0113 8125978 or email j.t.williams@leedsmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has over 25,000 students and around 3,000 staff. The Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University is Professor Susan Price and the Chair of the Board is Lord Woolmer of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitans four faculties are: Arts, Environment and Technology, Business & Law, Health and Social Sciences, and Carnegie. Leeds Metropolitans heritage can be traced back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in Leeds in 1824. International students rated the University top in the UK for language support, accommodation quality and learning spaces in the 2010 Autumn Wave of the International Student Barometer and sixth in the

world for the quality of its lectures. We have over 1,500 international students from 122 countries around the globe. The Universitys award-winning learning environments include

Broadcasting Place, which was voted the best tall building in the world in 2010 by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and also winner of the 2010 Leeds Architecture Awards New Building category.