The work behind
the capabilities.

The assignment

Plan how an organisation would take on operational responsibility while maintaining continuity. The work needed to explain who would be accountable, how the activities depended on one another, and what evidence would support decisions about readiness.

What Hannah built

Hannah McKeand developed the transition plan and its supporting planning structure. She connected the operating model and governance arrangements to defined work elements, an integrated schedule and workforce plans, so that responsibilities, timing and dependencies could be considered together.

The work brought risk controls into the transition plan and defined readiness criteria and the evidence needed to support them. It distinguished completing a scheduled activity from demonstrating that the operation was ready for the next step.

Governance and control

The planning framework connected workstream responsibilities, review points and outstanding actions. It provided a structure for examining dependencies, recording risks and checking whether the available evidence supported a readiness decision.

The deliverable

An integrated transition plan with the governance, schedule, workforce arrangements and supporting controls needed to manage the proposed change.

The responsibility

Hannah McKeand led a management team of 12 and a workforce of approximately 120 people. Her remit covered safety, staffing, logistics and coordination with scientific programmes, with direct reporting to senior programme leadership.

The work

She oversaw operational planning and execution across the station. Earlier work in the assistant area manager role included developing a comprehensive South Pole Station area risk register for the U.S. Antarctic Program, covering reputation, environment, facilities, health, safety and financial risk, alongside standard operating procedures, tracking systems and process improvements.

Operational responsibility

Experience of being responsible for the people and operation behind the plan, as well as creating the records and procedures used to manage it.

Area leadership and programme advice

Hannah McKeand created the COVID strategy for a remote station area and advised on the wider programme’s strategy. Her responsibilities included operational response planning for deployment into an isolated environment, alongside station leadership and workforce management.

Organisation-wide scope

Hannah McKeand authored the complete emergency procedure suite for a remote logistics and expedition operator. The assignment covered the whole organisation, rather than one expedition or location.

The assignments

Hannah McKeand authored root cause analyses following two fatal incidents. The work formed part of her broader experience in incident investigation and safety systems for high-risk operations.

The deliverables

Written root cause analyses for the commissioning organisations. The reports themselves, the people involved and the circumstances of the incidents are not reproduced here.

Investigation experience

This experience supports work where an organisation needs to understand a serious failure and examine the conditions that contributed to it.

The work

Hannah McKeand helped establish remote field operations and managed them across their operating lifecycle: planning, logistics, infrastructure, air-operations coordination and in-season management.

The responsibility

She managed multidisciplinary teams of up to 16 staff and coordinated with other operators on shared logistics, safety and contingency planning. The work required maintaining operations in isolated environments with limited redundancy.

The result

A field operation developed from initial concept into sustained seasonal delivery. Her experience extends beyond planning the launch to managing the operation over successive seasons.

The work

Hannah McKeand co-founded and operated a high-latitude sailing and expedition business. Her responsibilities included operational planning, environmental permitting, logistics and safety systems.

The result

The company delivered expeditions and was subsequently successfully exited. The experience encompasses establishing a business, operating it and completing an exit.

A continuing practice

She also founded Polar Expedition Training, designing and delivering structured programmes in expedition planning, risk awareness and execution, and building its client base through reputation and referral.

The work

Hannah McKeand led touring logistics, scheduling and financial negotiation for a producing theatre. The role involved coordinating complex production movements between multiple sites.

The breadth

This earlier work adds a different operating context to her later field leadership: moving teams and technical assets, agreeing commercial arrangements and managing schedules across venues.

Related experience

Her career also includes marketing leadership and management information analysis, working across departments to define requirements and deliver operational reporting.