Biography

A graduate of the universities of Aberdeen (MA), British Columbia (MA) and London (PhD), Professor Alan McKinnon has pursued an academic career since October 1979 specialising in transport and logistics. His PhD on the spatial organization of physical distribution in the food industry was one of the first undertaken in the UK on logistics. His initial appointment was as a lecturer in economic geography at the University of Leicester. Between 1987 and 2012 he was based at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where he established a research centre specializing in logistics and a master’s program in logistics and supply chain management. In 2012 he moved to Hamburg to become the first Head of Logistics and Dean of Programs in the Kuehne Logistics University, a private university set up in 2010 with funding from the Kuehne Foundation (www.the-klu.org). He was Dean of Programs until 2014 and Head of Logistics until 2016.  He retired from KLU in December 2025 though remains a Professor Emeritus and Honorary Senator of the University.  He also holds a Professor Emeritus position at Heriot-Watt University and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Tampere in Finland.

Over the past four decades, Professor McKinnon has actively promoted the development of logistics in academic, industrial and government circles. He has conducted around sixty studies on a broad spectrum of logistics topics for numerous public and private sector organisations and published extensively in the logistics and transport literature. This website provides an inventory of his published work in the field and has as much material for downloading as copyright rules permit.

Separate sections of the website list Professor McKinnon’s contributions to international organisations,including UN, World Bank, European Commission, World Economic Forum and International Transport Forum, as well as to governmental and parliamentary inquiries.

In 1996 Professor McKinnon was one of the six founder members of the Logistics Research Network, set up under the auspices of the Institute of Logistics to promote research on logistics in universities and colleges. He has / has had visiting professorships at universities in Australia, Malaysia, Sweden, the UK, China and South Africa, has given lectures / conferences addresses in 55 countries and been  on the editorial boards of six logistics / transport journals.

He has received several awards for his long term contribution to the development of logistics knowledge.  Click to view Awards page

Professor McKinnon is married with two sons.