About Us

Jock Hutchison and Vic Retalic formed Vector Expertise to put leadership excellence and high performance teamwork into the DNA of Companies.  Both Jock and Vic are passionate, experienced leaders with a vision to develop a standard of Leader that all industry sectors can be proud of.  Jock and Vic understand that sustainability is vital to the ethos of leadership excellence and high performance teamwork. 

The Vector team have experience in ensuring that sustainability becomes a key capability of leaders in the Client organisation. We put this at the core of developing your leaders.

Executive profiles 

JOCK HUTCHISON 

Born in Dunfermline Scotland in 1962 Jock’s schooling at Dollar Academy was unremarkable except for his love of horses and a year’s exchange to North Carolina at the age of sixteen, through the Rotary club of Dunfermline. This experience introduced Jock to western riding and working horses which profoundly affected the way he has worked with horses ever since.

After school and a traveling break (of a couple of years) Jock joined the Royal Marines as a Commando and a Commissioned Officer. After five years of service Jock was selected for flying duties and spent the next five years flying for the Army, Navy and Royal Marines. During this time he continued with his passion for horses competing on horses he owned.

Post military career Jock qualified as a commercial pilot and then went on to set up his own business in developing security strategies for blue chip clients which he ran for the next ten years.

In 2007 Jock met with a friend who had returned from serving with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan and immediately saw a need to provide purpose for severely injured servicemen post clinical care. HorseBack UK was born. Since 2008 HBUK has helped over 1500 service personnel regain the confidence and self-belief to reconnect with others and the world. Over the last five years the charity has focused on young people designing course that reconnect young people to the education process.

At the heart of the charity is horsemanship. The purest form of leadership horses can help teach people how the world sees them and helps them. The charity used these experiences to teach leadership and team dynamics to personnel in the commercial sector. These courses have proven so successful that the decision was made to set up Vector Expertise.

Vector combines practical experiences with real expertise to provide packages designed to help commercial organisations shift to the requirements of the 21st century. By bringing top leaders from a variety of disciplines we help organisations become high performance teams.

VIC RETALIC

Born and raised in the NE of Scotland, Vic joined the Oil & Gas industry directly from school. He has over 35 years experience; the first 22 years working for an International Oil Major in the UK gaining leadership experience in Production Operations, Drilling and Well Services as well as Health, Safety & Environment. Vic passed selection for two key leadership roles, Offshore Well Engineer and Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) Both selection processes had a high attrition rate and led to the start of structured training and assessments for these roles. Vic passed the World’s toughest Drilling Engineering exams, going on to lead Drilling teams on four oil platforms. 

As OIM Vic was legally accountable for the Health, Safety and Security of all persons onboard as well as the Environmental impact of operations. Vic led cultural change and performance improvement in a challenging and hostile environment. 

Latterly, as UK HSE and Security Manager for a UK Oil Operator he led further performance improvements, achieving the Company’s best HSE performance to date. He also introduced Mindfulness based Stress Management to his organisation; a first for an Oil Company. 

Vic was awarded the 2015 Oil & Gas UK Safety Leadership award in recognition of his innovative approach to leading for safety. 

In 2018 Vic set up his own company providing Leadership coaching to around 70 supervisors resulting in a significant change in HSE performance on a major offshore project. 

His passion for building high performance teams had led him to set up Vector Expertise with co-founder Jock Hutchison.