Todd Surbeck is an accomplished risk management, occupational safety, and organizational leadership professional with more than 25 years of experience helping companies protect their people, strengthen their operations, and build sustainable cultures of safety and accountability. His career has spanned insurance, risk consulting, food distribution, aviation, environmental health and safety, and business-to-business advisory environments, giving him a broad perspective on the operational challenges organizations face. Throughout his career, Todd has developed a reputation for translating complex regulatory requirements and risk exposures into practical strategies that leaders and employees can understand, implement, and sustain. He brings to executive and board-level conversations a combination of technical expertise, field experience, business judgment, and a genuine commitment to helping organizations improve.
Todd currently serves as a Senior Risk Management Specialist with Key Risk, a W. R. Berkley Company, where he provides risk analysis and consultative support to underwriting teams, clients, and agent-broker partners. In this capacity, he evaluates occupational risks, identifies potential safety and health hazards, develops solutions to improve account performance, and helps clients strengthen their risk management processes. His responsibilities extend beyond traditional safety consulting into relationship development, underwriting support, business retention, and cross-functional collaboration. By connecting operational risk management with broader business objectives, Todd helps organizations view safety not simply as a compliance requirement, but as an important contributor to performance, resilience, employee well-being, and long-term organizational value.
A defining element of Todd’s leadership is his ability to transform technical knowledge into resources that can be used across an organization. At Key Risk, he has developed interactive training content, monthly safety education materials, toolbox talks, video scripts, and other resources designed for both clients and fellow risk management professionals. He has also provided voice-over content for educational videos and has been invited to speak to major client organizations on environmental health and safety topics. His extensive public-speaking experience reinforces one of his greatest professional strengths: communicating complicated subjects in a way that is relevant and actionable for audiences ranging from frontline employees to senior business leaders.
Before joining Key Risk, Todd served as Regional Corporate Safety Manager for Performance Food Group, where he was responsible for safety and risk mitigation across nine locations within the company’s Customized division. The role required Todd to operate at the intersection of regulatory compliance, operational performance, workforce safety, transportation, environmental management, and organizational leadership. He conducted compliance audits, directed health and safety initiatives, provided OSHA guidance, oversaw accident and root-cause investigations, supported fleet and DOT programs, managed vendor relationships, and helped guide safety training. This regional leadership experience strengthened his ability to identify patterns across multiple operations, prioritize organizational risks, and implement programs capable of producing consistent results across geographically dispersed teams.
Earlier in his career, Todd built a substantial consulting foundation through positions with Accident Fund Insurance Company of America and Insperity. As a Senior Risk Control Consultant with Accident Fund, he conducted risk assessments, pre-policy inspections, exposure analyses, loss-trending reviews, job-hazard analyses, ergonomics assessments, accident investigations, industrial hygiene surveys, and comprehensive safety and health program audits. During more than six years as a Senior Safety Consultant with Insperity, he advised organizations on OSHA compliance, workplace safety, training development, fleet management, accident investigation, safety committees, and workplace improvement strategies. These roles exposed Todd to organizations with widely varying operating models, workforce structures, and risk profiles, sharpening his ability to assess unfamiliar environments quickly and provide practical recommendations.
Todd’s professional foundation reaches back to hands-on operational environments. He served as a Safety Director and as a safety and compliance consultant and trainer before moving into increasingly senior risk-management positions. Earlier still, Todd worked as an Aviation Maintenance Technician for organizations including Premier Air Center, COM-JET Corporation, and Midcoast Aviation/Jet Aviation. His aviation experience gave him firsthand exposure to industries in which precision, procedural discipline, technical competence, and accountability are essential. That operational foundation continues to inform his leadership philosophy today: effective policies must ultimately work in real-world environments, and strong leaders must understand both the strategic objective and the realities faced by the people responsible for executing it.
His expertise encompasses occupational risk management, OSHA compliance, workplace safety, industrial hygiene, environmental compliance, hazardous materials, accident investigation, safety management systems, fleet safety, workers’ compensation, training, auditing, ergonomics, and hazard identification. He also brings substantial experience in business-to-business relationships, team management, project execution, and organizational training, as well as exposure to specialized sectors including cannabis. Todd holds a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Safety and Health from Columbia Southern University and an Associate of Applied Science in Aviation Maintenance Technology from Southwestern Illinois College. His professional credentials include the Occupational Hygiene and Safety Technician (OHST) certification, Process Safety Management training, OSHA General Industry Outreach Trainer experience, HAZWOPER training, hazardous waste management training, DOT hazardous materials handling expertise, and industrial hygiene monitoring experience.
Todd’s leadership extends beyond his formal professional responsibilities. He previously served as a Member of the Board of Directors for Renewed Life Ministries Outreach, an experience that provided him with direct exposure to nonprofit governance and mission-oriented leadership. He has also devoted years of volunteer service to assisting veterans through Dress for Success/Connections to Success in St. Louis, contributing through warehouse support, clothing organization, and helping veterans prepare professionally for employment opportunities. These experiences reflect a service mindset that complements his corporate career and reinforces his belief that leadership is ultimately measured by the positive impact one can have on other people.
Mentorship has similarly become an important part of Todd’s professional identity. Over the course of his career, he has coached and mentored peers, shared technical knowledge, developed training resources, and helped professionals and organizations navigate challenging safety and risk-management issues. His interest in expanded board and advisory service represents a natural progression of that work. Having accumulated more than two decades of experience identifying risk, solving operational problems, guiding teams, and advising organizations, Todd is seeking opportunities to apply that experience from a broader strategic vantage point and to give back to organizations that can benefit from seasoned, practical counsel.
As a prospective board member or advisor, Todd offers a particularly valuable perspective on the relationship between governance, people, operations, compliance, and enterprise risk. He understands that organizations must balance growth and innovation with appropriate controls, employee protection, regulatory obligations, and disciplined execution. His experience working with companies of different sizes enables him to adapt his thinking to the circumstances of the organization rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach. Although open to serving organizations across a broad range of industries, with the exception of healthcare, he is especially well positioned to contribute where operational risk, workforce safety, regulatory compliance, B2B relationships, or organizational scaling are important strategic considerations.
At the center of Todd’s career is a straightforward commitment to leaving organizations and people stronger than he found them. Whether assessing an operational exposure, advising an underwriting team, coaching a colleague, presenting to an audience, developing a training program, or contributing in a boardroom, he approaches leadership through preparation, collaboration, accountability, and service. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Todd enjoys fishing and reading, pursuits that provide opportunities for reflection and continued learning. As he enters the next chapter of his leadership journey, he is focused on using the perspective gained over 25 years to help organizations anticipate challenges, make thoughtful decisions, develop people, and build stronger foundations for the future.
Character:
Todd leads with integrity, accountability, service, and a sincere commitment to improving the organizations and communities around him. His history of mentoring colleagues, supporting veterans, and contributing through nonprofit board service demonstrates that his approach to leadership extends beyond professional achievement to meaningful impact on others.
Knowledge:
Bringing more than 25 years of multidisciplinary expertise spanning occupational safety, enterprise and operational risk, OSHA and regulatory compliance, industrial hygiene, workers’ compensation, environmental management, aviation, training, and organizational operations. His combination of formal education, professional credentials, consulting experience, and hands-on operational exposure allows him to evaluate challenges from both technical and business perspectives.
Strategic:
Todd is skilled at identifying emerging risks, evaluating their operational consequences, and translating those findings into practical systems, processes, and recommendations that support stronger organizational outcomes. His experience advising clients, collaborating with underwriting and business partners, managing regional safety responsibilities, and participating in cross-functional initiatives enables him to connect frontline realities with broader strategic priorities.
Communication:
An experienced presenter, trainer, mentor, and content developer who can communicate effectively across organizational levels and with audiences possessing widely different levels of technical expertise. His ability to make complicated safety, compliance, and risk concepts understandable and actionable helps create alignment, strengthen relationships, and move organizations from awareness to meaningful action.
