Laird Plc
LRD:LN

Appointed to the Board initially as a Non-Executive Director, Martin succeeded Nigel Keen as Chairman in May 2014. Martin is Chairman of the two Government companies (the Low Carbon Contracts Company and the Electricity Settlements Company) set up to manage contracts and payments under the electricity market reform programme. He is Chairman of the Remuneration Consultants Group and a Non-Executive Director of Lloyds of London and the UK Government Efficiency and Reform Board. Martin was Chief Executive of international IT services company, Logica, from 1993 to 2007 and has served as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Invensys, Aegis Group, British Airways, Siemens Holdings, Boots and Asda. He led UK Government reviews on back office operations and IT across the public sector (2009) and management information (2012).

David Lockwood joined Laird in July 2012 before assuming the role of Chief Executive in August 2012. David was formerly Vice President Global Defence & Security at BT Global Services. He gained extensive senior management experience in international operations from roles at GPT (Marconi), BAE Systems, Intense Limited (a photonics high-tech start-up) and Thales Corporation. David chaired the Scottish Government’s Technology Advisory Group and, in 2005, was awarded Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year for Technology. He is the Non-Executive Chair of Knowledge Transfer Network Limited, a vehicle which was established in April 2014 to support the work of Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) – the UK’s innovation agency which is sponsored by the UK Government’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Tony joined Laird on 1 July 2015 and was appointed to the Board as Chief Financial Officer on 28 July 2015. Tony was most recently Group Finance Director of Drax Group plc. He previously worked at Marks & Spencer where he held a number of senior positions within Internal Audit, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations and Financial Control, including Director of Finance, the deputy to the Group Finance Director. Tony is also Vice Chairman of the Port of London Authority (PLA), where he chairs the Audit Committee. He is a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) having qualified with Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC). He holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry with Business Studies.

Paula served as Senior Independent Director from August 2013 to March 2015. Paula is the Group Finance Director of John Menzies Plc and prior to this was Group Finance Director of Ricardo Plc. Paula has extensive commercial and finance experience working in senior roles of large international organisations, built on a 10-year period at Rolls-Royce Plc. Paula is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Accountants.

Jack is a Non-Executive Director of Mitie Group plc, where he chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit and Nomination Committees. Jack is also Chairman of Ilika plc and on the board of the Innovate UK Energy Catalyst. He sits on the board of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and is co-deputy chairman of the Advanced Materials Leadership Council. He previously held roles as CEO of Automotive Engineering Group TCG and at Goldman Sachs and strategy consultant Bain & Co.

Sir Christopher was British Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, having previously served as HM Ambassador Warsaw and Deputy Under-Secretary for North Asia and the Pacific, and earlier as Head of the Hong Kong Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He retired as Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 2012.

Mike Parker assumed the role of Senior Independent Director (SID) on his appointment to the Board. Mike is currently SID of publicly quoted company PV Crystalox Plc and a Non-Executive director of SNC-Lavalin Inc, a publicly quoted Canadian company. Mike’s main Executive career was in the Dow Chemical Company between 1968 to 2002 where he worked internationally, particularly in North America and Asia, rising to become Chief Executive Officer. He was Chief Executive Officer of British Nuclear Fuels from 2003 to 2009 and he served as the SID on the Board of Invensys Plc from 2006 to 2013. In November 2014, Mike was awarded the recognition of Citizen of Honour for the City of Liverpool.

Kjersti is currently Director, Group Technology Operations at Vodafone and previously held a series of senior global roles including Chief Operating Officer of VimpelCom Russia, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Kyivstar in Ukraine, and Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Digi Telecommunications in Malaysia, and Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Telenor in Norway. She is a Non-Executive Director of Cxense ASA in Norway and was previously a Non-Executive Director of Fast Search & Transfer ASA in Norway and Telescience Inc in the US. She holds an MA in Business Management from the BI Norwegian School of Management and an MSc in Electronics from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.