News and Events

BU Graduate Bids for Livewire Award

25 April 2007

BU graduate Simon Phelps is among the finalists to become the Shell Livewire South West Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Simon, who graduated from BU in 2004 with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Aided Design, is currently in the United States to boost his entrepreneurial skills.

He’s working to turn his one-time student project - the unique ‘Floodstop’ modular flood barrier – into a commercial reality.

As a regional finalist in the Shell Livewire competition, Simon has already won £500. He stands to win a further prize of £3,000 if he wins the South West portion of the national competition.

The national winner will be announced on June 13.

“I am very pleased to be part of the Shell Livewire event,” says Simon.

“I owe it to all the people and organizations in the South West who have helped me to get this far, including Bournemouth University, Business Link and the South West Regional Development Agency, as well as the many local businessmen and women who have gone out of their way to offer me advice.”

Simon is on secondment in the US until the end of June as one of just 15 Entreneurship Fellows selected by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and the US-based Ewing Kauffman Foundation.

His visit features interaction with leading scholars and thinkers, policy leaders, innovative researchers, and business founders, with an aim to develop commercial know-how and potential new business contacts.

He’s also visiting leading universities, including Harvard, before completing a three-month internship with SoftVu, LLC, a leading provider of online sales and marketing communication solutions, headquartered near Kansas City.

When he returns from the US, Simon plans to combine his experience as an Enterprise Fellow with the £11,000 he received through a DTi Smart Award to continue developing his start-up company, Fluvial Innovations, based in Poole.