John Aitken has many years of experience in making effective use of electronic communications for business purposes, starting long before the start of the ".com" age. From the use of time share services in the 70s to the early adoption of word processing, personal computing and e-mail to the development of the latest interactive web-based business applications, including web linked databases and e-commerce systems.
John is currently Managing Director of Local Internet Services Ltd., which trades as "Linnet" and which was established by John in 1995 to provide Internet services and support to small businesses in central Scotland. Linnet provides training, support and a full range of internet services, including web design and hosting. Since 1998 Linnet has provided Intranet applications development services on a regular basis to BP Grangemouth.
In 1990 John led a Management Buy-Out which formed Pentland Systems Ltd. from the former VME Systems division of Burr-Brown. John was Managing Director of Pentland from its inception until 1995, when he left to form Linnet. He continued to serve as a non-executive director until 2002 and remains a shareholder. Pentland Systems continues to develop and manufacture leading-edge analogue and digital electronic systems, mainly for the aerospace industry.
In 1987 he joined Burr-Brown as Divisional Manager of the VME Systems Division, which produced high performance analog and digital electronic products for the VME bus, based on Burr-Brown's range of A/D and D/A converters.
He was recruited by MESL as the Security Division's Production Engineering Manager in 1975 and moved into Marketing in 1979. MESL were acquired by RACAL and MESL Security became RACAL Guradall. The company grew rapidly from under £1 M to over £30 M turnover and won the Queen's Award for Export. As Marketing Director, John Aitken was instrumental in developing the company's product and promotional strategies. He traveled widely and was involved with the establishment of sales subsidiaries in USA, England, Italy, France and Germany.
Born in Glasgow on 1st August 1945 and educated at Ardrossan Academy and Dollar Academy, John Aitken graduated BSc (Elect) Eng at Glasgow University in 1967 and started work as a Production Engineer at Honeywell's Scottish computer assembly plant. He specialised in the automated assembly of Printed Circuit Boards and traveled to many Honeywell facilities worldwide as an expert on automated PC assembly, soldering and solderability.
John and his second wife Lyn (who also works for Linnet) live "over the shop" in Linlithgow. Between them they have three grown up sons, two grown up daughters and two grand children. He is a founder member of the Linlithgow Union Canal Society and is currently Treasurer of Carers of West Lothian and Webmaster for Linlithgow Civic Trust
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