Dr Victoria Todd

I am the Founding Managing Director (Director of Science) at Ocean Science Consulting (OSC) Limited (Dunbar, Scotland) and Visiting Research Scientist at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), under the guardianship of Professor Paul White, at one of my alma maters, Southampton University, England (say all that with a sweetie in your mouth). OK, so that’s the official stuff out of the way. Let’s have a bit of fun…

In utero, I decided to be a marine biologist. At nine, I had my career planned out, including scientists I wanted to work with, universities I wished to attend, and animals I craved to study. Supported by several (ridiculously generous) scholarships and prizes (achieved on merit, not skirt length, I add), I attended Liverpool University (B.Sc. Marine Biology). I specialised in scraps between sea anemones, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI (M.Sc. Oceanography), trying to find out if Keiko (Free Willy) could speak orca (he couldn’t). Then at Leeds University (Ph.D.), running around the Yorkshire Dales and Welsh countryside at night, getting hypothermia, recording bats. In between, I broke my back in the Arctic trying to record killer whales at the tender age of 18, ran about trying to rescue abandoned seals for a bit, did a stint with turtles in Greece (has anybody not got this on their CV?), bumbled around the Mediterranean collecting sperm whale poo, avoided getting blown up in Croatia during the war, moved to Germany, worked for various NGOs and ultimately, UNEP, lived and worked in Galápagos, was held hostage in Ecuador, did some SCUBA and submersible diving all over the world doing research and taxonomically identifying EverySingleMarineCreatureKnownToMankind fuelling a complete obsession with scientific names and etymology. Amongst other insane things, I lived on a uninhabited island studying kittiwakes – after ditching the first boyfriend, and shacking up with a (then) volunteer (and now Oxford professor), wrote scripts for BBC Wildlife programmes, tucked a few post docs in at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS, UK) – recording seal scarers, artificial reef research, and tried not to fall asleep watching halibut eggs sink in glass jars, etc., finally realising that I absolutely, 100%, no way José, wanted to be an academic, since all my best ideas were nabbed by less-than-moral scientists at a well-known University on the other side of the country (miaow).

So, I thought to myself ‘how can I do conservation, make enough money to carry out any research I like, pick and choose my own team, and not have anybody tell me what to do?’. Answer: crossover to the ‘dark side’. So, I secured a generous Scottish business startup grant, ditched the second layabout ex (hey, something’s got to give when you’re this ambitious, right?), got myself THE ULTIMATE AND FINAL half Danish/Half Scottish DionysusBestFriendDiverSoulMateHusband, trained as a commercial diver, started OSC, and three days later, was paid silly money to…da da da…do the harbour porpoise research I always wanted to do by a German oil & gas company, Wintershall (my first and favourite client). Oh, and I also ran a dive school at some point, had a kid, and if I was to list everything I have ever done here, this would be a book (which I also wrote, forgot about that).

After more than thirty years working offshore (interspersed with rescuing wild animals left, right, and centre), I am now lucky enough to have the, for want of a better word, equivalent academic position as ‘Industry Professor’, with a stunning team of loyal and senior PhD-qualified scientist genii. With permission from our amazing clients, I am proud to say that we’re the only 100% independent and for-profit company in the world, that pays its staff 100% research time to give clever and motivated staff opportunity to turn industry reports into peer-reviewed papers.

So, who is Victoria Todd neé Turner when she’s not at work? Well, I’m a vehemently private and sometimes too generous and trusting OCD workaholic, with a whacky sense of humour, fiercely loyal to those who reciprocate, very passionate both positively (I love to praise) and negatively (I have a pathological hatred of laziness and people who tell lies, which is probably just as well, since I work for industry), and I am married to my best friend and co-Director, with an unbelievably gorgeous and ridiculously clever daughter (Petra Todd), who is studying to be a vet. #MyJobIsMyHobby. Favourite land animal: tiger. Favourite bird: a rook, a crow, or a raven. Favourite sea creature: orca. Least favourite animal: human. Speciality: decommissioning and rigs-to-reefs. Final ambition and commercial epitaph: ‘Here lies Victoria Todd. Lover of corvids. Greatest achievement: overturned the OSPAR 98/3 ‘clean seabed’ decision’.

Come join me for the ride!”