Board & Management

Edward Cook joined the company in February 2001, having spent two years as a director of ICE Mobile Ltd, an ecommerce consultancy. Prior to this, he was a director of a leading technology consulting and training company which he grew from two to 120 full-time staff. He managed the successful sale of the business to The Delphi Group PLC.

Sandy started his working life as an officer in the British Army.  Since leaving the army he has held a number of senior positions in operations and finance.  Sandy started, ran and sold a mobile phone operator in Estonia;  was chairman of a number of cable TV companies; senior fund manager of a JP Morgan private equity fund; and managing director of a high tech investment bank. He is a chartered engineer with a degree in electronics and an MBA.  He has led the acquisition process for AVM since January 2005.

Jared Lancaster has been with AVM for 7 years and has worked across all areas of the business. Jared’s background comes from electrical switchgear, focusing on complex control and high voltage equipment. As the industry moved to converge with IT he became certified in industry standard IT qualifications as well as the AV industry qualifications such as ICIA’s Certified Technology Specialist (CTS), Certified Video Conferencing Engineer (CVE) and manufacture specific courses such as Tandberg along with becoming a Crestron Authorised Programmer. Jared directs both the technical resources and the operations department to ensure a high level of technical accuracy and fluent operations at all times.

Craig's technical career began in the manufacturing sector, designing and engineering complex machinery for both the Defence, and Motor Vehicle Industry. Craig Joined AVM in September 2002 as a Service Engineer, now managing, expanding, and developing the Service Department as a highly profitable revenue generator. Craig directs a large team of both field and onsite engineers, supporting blue chip clients all over the UK, and abroad. Craig is qualified as a Certified Technology Specialist (CTS), Certified Video Conferencing Engineer (CVE) and courses from Tandberg, Panasonic and Crestron.

Jim Maxwell started as an Electronic Engineer at GEC Avionics in 1989, before moving into AV with Quest Technical Systems in 1994 within the Service Team. Following this period, Jim moved into the AV Projects Team as a Project Manager and has since worked for two other Major AV companies within the UK as a Senior PM and within Operations Management. Jim has been with AVM since December 2005, through the acquisition of AVE Systems where he held the position of Operations Director and now has the position as Commercial Director for the Operations Department at AVM to ensure the Operations are working efficiently whilst maintaining our high standards of service.

Jane joined Octopus Private Equity in 2006. Prior to that she had ten years of private equity experience at Bridgepoint in the portfolio team, where she was responsible for working with and selling over 60 portfolio companies. She has a degree in Accounting from Portsmouth University and is a chartered management accountant. Jane is a non-executive director at AVM.

Alan is a seasoned Chairman and Senior Executive, who has over 30 years experience within the IT industry. Currently, he is Chairman of Blackhawk Investments Ltd, a Private Equity vehicle that focuses on undervalued assets. He sits on the Board of Blackhawk’s portfolio companies – including Teksys, which has recently been sold to Dimension Data plc. He also sits on the Board of Appligenics, a Software Generation Company.

Previously Alan held senior positions within the TMT sector, and was most notably the Founder and Managing Director of Cisco Systems Ltd, Cisco’s UK subsidiary. During this time he grew the operation from a standing start to over £300M of revenue.