About
Operations, people and risk – in places where confidence and understanding is key.
Hello — I’m Louise Watson.
I’ve spent two decades running operations, people and risk. In the military, in the expedition and adventure travel sector, in TV risk management, in sport, and in the charitable sector.
The thread running through all of it is the same. Environments where the plan has to survive contact with reality, and where “we didn’t think that would happen” isn’t an acceptable answer. That’s shaped how I work. I build structure quickly, keep it proportionate, and test it against what actually happens rather than what the policy says should.
It’s also shaped what I care about. Most of the organisations I’ve worked with are trying to do something genuinely worthwhile with limited resources and a lot of goodwill. They deserve systems that protect their people and let them get on with the work — not a folder of policies written to satisfy an auditor. Getting that right is the part of the job I enjoy most.
The route here
The RAF taught me logistics and leadership. Eleven years as a Logistics Officer, leading and training teams from four to forty-plus people, advising international leadership teams, and being responsible for the welfare and safety of people in complex operational environments. I left with a commendation from the Air Officer Commanding and a permanent habit of building contingency into everything.
Help for Heroes put me in charge of the Sports Recovery team’s strategy and delivery, and made me a Project Manager for the London 2014 Invictus Games. Multi-sport training and competition, multidisciplinary health and welfare teams, partnerships with national governing bodies and international federations.
Glenmore Lodge, the UK’s national outdoor training centre, is where I learned to teach. Development Instructor and Media Manager, designing and delivering coaching and leadership training in genuinely high-risk learning environments, plus safeguarding and duty-of-care training in the field, and building a crisis-communications training system.
Wilderness Scotland gave me national programme delivery at scale. Sole responsibility for a road-cycling programme running 47 departures a season, alongside sustainability strategy, safeguarding and operational compliance.
Secret Compass was five years as Operations Director and Chief of Staff to the MD, in a business delivering high-risk expeditions and TV productions in remote locations worldwide. I rebuilt the operational and risk frameworks, wrote the governance and policy structure, recruited and developed a ten-plus person HQ team that tripled our capacity, created the mental health, wellbeing and safeguarding training frameworks, and led the organisation through B Corp accreditation.
eXXpedition Travel was a General Manager turnaround role for a global expedition start-up delivering scientific research and environmental advocacy through sailing expeditions. Governance, compliance, legal and financial oversight, international programme delivery, and duty-of-care frameworks across global operations.
5143 North is what I do now. Fractional, interim and project-based consultancy for charitable, expedition and sporting organisations, alongside associate training and facilitation.
Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service — I’m an on-call firefighter alongside the consultancy. Partly because I believe in it. Partly because it keeps incident command and crisis decision-making a live skill rather than a story about something I used to do.
Credentials
Operational and risk
Security & Risk Management Consultants Course (Level 5 and Level 6 in progress) · NEBOSH National General Certificate (NGC1 Passed, NGC2 results pending) · Field Logistics in Emergencies · Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Practitioner
Emergency and medical
Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMSI–WEMT) practitioner · Immediate Emergency Care qualified · Mental Health First Aid · FREC 3 qualified · FREC 4 in progress
Leadership and outdoor
Institute of Leadership & Management, Affiliate · Mountain Training Mountain Leader (Summer) · BA (Hons) Ancient History & Archaeology
Recognition
Queen’s Birthday Honours — Air Officer Commanding Commendation (2012)
Beyond the day job
Para sports representative for the national and international federations of skeleton and bobsleigh. Samaritans listening volunteer. Safety support for ultra-distance events. Ecological volunteering in the Cairngorms. Community scrutiny volunteer with Wiltshire Police.
There’s a pattern in that list, and it isn’t a coincidence. I’m drawn to organisations trying to do something difficult and worthwhile, and I’m endlessly interested in what makes them hold together when it gets hard.
I also write about risk, resilience and leading through uncertainty on Substack.
The name
5143 North is a latitude. It’s where a lot of this started. It’s where I took the next step into consultancy.