Businessman. Baird was born and brought up in Aberdeen. He was educated at the University of Cambridge. Baird joined the oil services company Schlumberger in 1960 and rose to become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (1986 - 2003), seeing its global turn-over grow to $10 billion. He has also served as Chairman of Rolls-Royce and on the board of Scottish Power, the French investment bank Société Générale and the New York Stock Exchange . Baird is now based in New York. He has also served in science and technology committees advising the British and French governments.
Baird was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Aberdeen (1995) and the University of Dundee (1998).