Derek began his career in Toronto working for Nestlé Canada on the PowerBar energy bar portfolio before moving to Ottawa to lead the development of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic program for the Royal Canadian Mint. Derek held various senior sales with Starbucks Coffee Company roles in Ottawa and Atlantic Canada before diving into entrepreneurship in 2015.

Derek is a Propel graduate having gone through the Accelerator in 2016 and understands the ups and downs that accompany startup life, shuttering his business in 2017. Derek’s extensive experience in customer pain or problem discovery and value-based selling drives him to encourage founders to embrace customer discovery as the key to understanding how to create value for their customers.