For 15 years, Hannah Haskell has been steadily working her way up at Port Taranaki, taking career and professional development opportunities along the way.
Now land and operations planning manager, Hannah has responsibility for 35 team members across planning, security, and wharf services and cargo.
As part of Port Taranaki’s leadership team, she plays a key role working with the port team, customers and regulators to ensure continuous improvement across our land-based operations.
Having spent a couple of summers at the port as part of the student programme, Hannah’s fulltime journey at Port Taranaki began in 2008 in a six-month fixed term project position.
This rolled into a maintenance administrator role, and then a transfer to the marine department. Her potential noticed, six months into the position, and following a professional development review with her manager, she began in-person study at the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki polytechnic, and via correspondence through Open Polytechnic.
“It snowballed from a certificate, to a diploma, and then to a Bachelor of Applied Management. Throughout my study, Port Taranaki was really supportive and gave me time and flexibility to attend classes,” Hannah says.
“It was also awesome to be working in a company where I could leverage off the different skillsets of my colleagues while I was studying – I could go and talk to the appropriate person and ask questions to improve my practical application of my learning.
“It was great to have that inhouse support and resource.”
From marine administrator, Hannah became marine services officer and then operations planner – planning the arrival, mooring and departure of all visiting vessels.
Throughout that period she took opportunities to learn more, get exposed to more areas of the business, and attend internal leadership and development courses that were offered.
She says that ongoing opportunity for career development has been central to her moving into a management role.
“I’ve been really fortunate to have been given the opportunity to develop my skills and my leadership knowledge, and progress in the company. I’ve always felt well supported by colleagues, and really enjoy working for Port Taranaki – it’s a great place to work.”
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