Adrienne Todd

Adrienne Todd is Co-Founding Partner and Head of Consulting at Dispatch Risk Advisory, based in North Africa. A former FBI Special Agent with experience in Afghanistan reconstruction oversight, she specializes in crisis management, investigations, and political risk across emerging markets, serving corporate, government, and non-profit clients at the crossroads of three continents.

What makes you a Risky Woman?

She left the security of a career as an FBI Agent to co-found a risk advisory firm in North Africa—choosing Tunisia over Manhattan. Operating at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, she’s built a practice solving complex problems in emerging markets where most firms won’t go.

Name your top 3 achievements

1. Co-founding Dispatch Risk Advisory in 2020, building an international consulting practice serving corporate, government, and non-profit clients across MENA and emerging markets during a global pandemic.
2. Serving as an FBI Special Agent, conducting high-stakes investigations while building networks across challenging geographies that now underpin her consulting work.
3. Working as Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction in Kabul, delivering critical oversight in an active conflict zone while navigating complex political and security environments.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

Walking away from the FBI to launch a startup in Tunisia. She traded institutional backing for entrepreneurial uncertainty, choosing to build something new in North Africa rather than climb a federal ladder. It meant betting on herself in emerging markets most consultants avoid.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

She’s left-handed and, therefore, a wily veteran on the ultimate frisbee field.

What is the best quality for successful leaders in Risk?

Nuanced thinking. The best risk leaders resist binary assessments and simplistic frameworks. They understand that risks and threats rarely fit neat into categories. Success requires seeing the gray areas, understanding local context, and recognizing that the same situation can present both opportunity and danger depending on perspective.