Philip “Flip” Todd is a native of Washington DC, a graduate of the Sidwell Friends School and Boston University with a degree in government. He began work at Lappi’s Chevron in Gulkana, Alaska in 1969 where he was a proficient tire changer before joining the Anchorage Times that year as an obituary writer. He progressed to covering the Anchorage School board before being drafted into the U.S. Army.

Stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C. attached to the Special Forces before being transferred to Ft. Richardson, AK, he worked as a general assignment and sports reporter at the Anchorage Daily News at night and on weekends while in the Army.
A fourth generation journalist, he returned to the Anchorage Times after discharge from the Army in 1972 and spent several years as a business writer and editor.

In 1976 he became a full time free-lance writer and photographer for the AP and both local and national publications such as Alaska Industry Magazine, Business Week and the Washington Post. He is a fourth generation journalist.

In 1978 he began publishing the Alaska Directory of Attorneys, a semi-annual publication still produced by his publishing company, Todd Communications. The directory which lists all active members of the Alaska bar along with information ranging from members’ year of admission, undergraduate school, year of graduation and major, to law school and e-mail address, has become the bible of the Alaska legal community.

He brought the first color scanner to the state in 1982 when he founded Alaska Color Scan. He is president of Todd Communications which publishes many books, calendars and maps. The company is also the state’s primary wholesale distributor of these products to more than 700 stores, as well as providing international print brokering services to other publishers.

He is a past president of the Alaska World Affairs Council and has served on its board for more than 20 years.

He has led Todd Communications for more than 35 years and developed it into a fully integrated publishing and publishing services company serving publishers ranging from the largest New York houses to regional and local concerns.

Increasingly its services are focused on assisting Alaska and Pacific Northwest authors and photographers to self-publish their own works.  It accomplishes this by offering editing, book design, printing and wholesale distribution of books about Alaska and by Alaska authors. The company has 20 employees and offices in Ketchikan, Juneau, Fairbanks and Juneau serving the entire state with publishing services and wholesale book, calendar and map distribution.

Philip “Flip” Todd