Mark Laird — Founder and Managing Director, Lairds AV

Mark Laird started the business in 1999 and has run it as Lairds of Troon Limited since 2007. He is a technology engineer: two master’s degrees in security sixteen years apart, a career in communications and networking that began in the Army in 1992, and a practice that designs the technology infrastructure of a building rather than fitting products into it once it is finished.

That is a deliberate position. The work starts at RIBA Stage 2, when the communications room is drawn and the routes are agreed, not at fit-out when the walls are closed. Everything below is the evidence it rests on, published with the body that issued it and the year.

Academic record

Six awards, all permanent, all verifiable with the awarding institution.

MSc Cyber Security (Graduate Apprenticeship) — The Open University, 2025. Distinction in Digital Forensics. 180 credits at SCQF Level 11, completed in employment on the Scottish Graduate Apprenticeship route.
MSc Network Security — Glasgow Caledonian University, 2009.
BSc Communication Technologies, with Distinction — University of Paisley, now the University of the West of Scotland, 2004.
BTEC Professional Development Certificate, Digital Home Technology Integration — Birmingham City University, 2008.
HNC Computer and Network Support — Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2001.
SVQ Construction Site Supervision, SCQF Level 7 — Scottish Qualifications Authority, jointly with the Institution of Civil Engineers and the CIOB, 2018.

The two master’s degrees are separate qualifications sixteen years apart, in network security and then in cyber security. The construction supervision award is the one that surprises people: it is why site meetings, method statements and programme dates are a conversation rather than an obstacle.

Professional certifications

Certified Network Cable Installer (CNCI) — CNet Training. Current, renewable December 2026.
Copper Certified Cabling Test Technician and Fiber Certified Cabling Test Technician — Fluke Networks, delivered by CNet Training, 2020. DSX Series CableAnalyzer, CertiFiber Pro and OptiFiber Pro, Tier 1 and Tier 2.
HomeWorks Qualification and RA2 and RA3 Select Qualification — Lutron EA Ltd, 2023.
CEA-CompTIA DHTI+ Certified Professional — CompTIA with the Consumer Electronics Association, 2008.
Network+ and A+ — CompTIA, 2006.
LPIC-1 — Linux Professional Institute, 2006.
HDBaseT Advanced Installer — HDBaseT Alliance, 2014.
INTEGRA technical training — SATEL, 2019.
Ethical Hacker, Cyber Threat Management, Network Defense and Endpoint Security — Cisco Networking Academy, 2024. Course completions, described as such.

Manufacturer relationships are not certifications

These are two different kinds of claim and mixing them is how most technology firms end up publishing something that quietly expires. A manufacturer relationship is a live commercial arrangement, evidenced by current dealer status with the manufacturer. A personal certification is a document with a date on it, and it is worth publishing only while it is live.

Lairds AV works with Control4 as a dealer, is Lutron certified for HomeWorks and RA2 Select, is a Sonance commercial partner, and engineers with RTI, Steinway Lyngdorf and others named on the project records. Those are relationships. The list above is certifications. They are kept apart on purpose.

Military service

Seven years with The Royal Highland Fusiliers, enlisted 3 March 1992. Regimental Signaller, Standard 2, trained in Clansman combat net radio repair and in classified documents handling, and appointed Regimental Signals Manager. The work was mobile armoured signals reconnaissance: qualified on CVR(T) reconnaissance vehicles, and as driver, track commander and driver and maintenance instructor on Warrior armoured infantry vehicles. Arctic survival trained, and skied for the Army throughout Europe. Operational service in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, General Service Medal with Northern Ireland clasp and UNPROFOR. Discharged Lance Corporal in 1999.

In communications, networking and security ever since. The habits that came out of it — plan the infrastructure first, assume the link will fail, document what you did — are the habits the practice still runs on.

A note on records, since people ask: courses and decorations sit on the Certificate of Qualifications, appointments and roles sit on the Service Record. They are two different documents, and the first stops at 1997. That is normal for anyone who served.

Recognition

Personal placings, each on the awarding body’s own record:

Finalist, Entrepreneur of the Year, Scottish Veterans Awards 2020.
Finalist, Entrepreneur of the Year, Ex-Forces in Business Awards, Scottish Awards 2022.
Finalist, Business Leader of the Year, Ex-Forces in Business Awards, Scottish Awards 2026.

For the business:

Gold, Veteran Owned Business of the Year, Scottish Veterans Awards 2022 — then sponsor of the same category in 2023. Won it, then paid for it to exist the following year.
Regional Winner (Scotland), The Workforce Developer, Chamber Business Awards 2023, British Chambers of Commerce, entered through Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce. The BCC publishes national winners only, so the regional placing is evidenced by its own winners’ pack rather than by a public listing. Stated here with that limit attached.

Community

Lairds AV designed and installed the audio visual systems at Killie Community in Kilmarnock, and sponsored the Veteran Owned Business of the Year category at the Scottish Veterans Awards in 2023, the year after winning it.

How to check any of this

Every credential above names the body that issued it and the year. The academic awards were read from the awarding institutions’ own result letters and diploma supplements in August 2026; the certifications were transcribed from the certificates themselves rather than from memory or from an older version of this website. Where a certification has lapsed or been retired it has been removed from this page rather than left to age quietly.

One standing exception: the practice does not discuss the technical detail of work carried out under protective or security operations, whatever the client or the date.

Where this shows up in the work

Home network infrastructure — structured cabling and enterprise networking in private houses.
CCTV and security — surveillance designed as part of the network, not bolted onto it.
AV and cyber security training — where the two master’s degrees actually get used.
Commercial audio visual — boardrooms, hospitality, education and places of work.
Projects — the record of delivered work.
About Lairds AV — the practice, the team and the company record.

If there is a building and a programme, the earliest useful conversation is the cheapest one. Start a conversation.