Sharon ToddSector leader

Biography

Sharon Todd is Chief Executive Officer of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), a registered charity and learned society established in 1881, headquartered at Belgrave Square, London. She joined SCI as Executive Director in June 2015, having previously spent over 25 years in the chemical industry working for global corporations, including board positions in listed companies, and ran her own consultancy for eight years focused on strategic repositioning and commercialising technology start-ups. She studied chemistry at Southampton University and holds diplomas from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Directors. Todd is known for publicly advocating for a UK industrial science and innovation strategy, arguing in outlets including The Economist, Sky News, and BBC Radio 4 that the decline of basic chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing poses a serious risk to national resilience and public health supply chains. SCI's remit explicitly covers health and wellbeing as one of its core thematic areas, and Todd has argued that without policy intervention the UK risks losing the industrial base underpinning life sciences.

References

1. 1.Society of Chemical Industry – Profile: Sharon Todd — Confirms her role as CEO/Executive Director, joining date of 15 June 2015, career background, education at Southampton University, and prior consultancy work.
2. 2.Society of Chemical Industry – Key People — Confirms current title as Chief Executive Officer of SCI.
3. 3.Sharon Todd calls for government to adopt SCI Manifesto in The Economist — Evidences her public advocacy on industrial science policy and the life sciences/health sector economic argument.
4. 4.SCI CEO Sharon Todd features on Sky News piece 'The UK is losing the industry that makes everything' — Documents her media profile and arguments about UK pharmaceutical and chemical production decline.
5. 5.Society of Chemical Industry – Charity Commission contact information

Expertise

Cited on

• Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Stated areas of expertise

• Life sciences and pharmaceutical supply chain resilience
• Industrial science and innovation policy
• Chemicals sector sustainability
• Science commercialisation
• Health and wellbeing manufacturing base
• Net-zero industrial strategy

Notable achievements

• Authored a piece in The Economist calling for a UK industrial science and innovation strategy, citing SCI-commissioned research showing the UK risks losing £230bn GVA and 240,000 jobs in life sciences and cleantech by 2030 without such a strategy. Source ↗
• Featured on Sky News in a major investigation into the UK's declining basic chemical production capability, including pharmaceuticals, plastics and fertilisers. Source ↗
• Appeared as a panellist on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions alongside serving MPs, representing science and industry perspectives on topical public affairs. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “The growing exodus of large-scale businesses from the UK is immensely alarming.”

  chief executive of the Society of Chemical Industry · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Big pharma will stop investing in UK, top scientist warns after Merck’s £1bn exit ↗

Source references

1. Big pharma will stop investing in UK, top scientist warns after Merck’s £1bn exittheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://www.soci.org/about-us/people/executive-director
• Press office emailscimarketing@soci.orgpublished here ↗
• Press office phone+44 (0)20 7598 1562published here ↗
• Websitehttps://www.soci.org/media-centre

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.