Professor Alan McKinnon

Background

Professor Alan McKinnon is Head of Logistics at Kuehne Logistics University, Hamburg.  He was formerly Director of the Logistics Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.  A graduate of the Universities of Aberdeen, British Columbia and London, he has been researching and teaching in freight transport and logistics for 35 years and has published extensively in journals and books.  Alan has undertaken research and consultancy studies for numerous public and private sector organisations in the UK and overseas and been an adviser to several UK Government Departments and Parliamentary Committees, the European Commission, the International Transport Forum, International Energy Agency and OECD.  Between 2010 and 2012 Professor McKinnon was Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Logistics and Supply Chain Industry Council.  In 2012 he was appointed to the EU High Level Group on Logistics set up to advise the European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas. 

Alan is also a lead author of the transport chapter of the 5th Assessment Report of the Inter-Government Panel on Climate Change, which will be published in 2014.  Much of his research in recent years has focused on sustainable logistics and in particular the links between logistics and climate change.  In 2003 he received the Sir Robert Lawrence award, the highest distinction of the UK Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, for his long track record of research and education in logistics.