Board Member, UCI Alumni Association
Founder, The Underswell
Co-Founder, Kozm
Instructor, Orange Coast College
UC Irvine – 1995, B.A., arts
UC Irvine – 2002, M.B.A.
Derek had a unique career path moving from engineering to studio art, into the action
sports industry. He spent 19 years at the local clothing brand Volcom, during which he obtained his M.B.A. at UCI (FEMBA ’02). Then Derek began an entrepreneurial role in addition to being a college instructor at OCC. Derek is a creative strategist, speaker and educator who has built an expertise working in sustainability on the brand building side.
Derek has had the opportunity to work on a variety of boards: Costa Mesa Foundation,
PangeaSeed Foundation, and the Orange Coast College Foundation.
Derek’s passion is to share with students select insights of his professional career path and has had the opportunity to speak at two of UC Irvine's Sustainability Symposiums (2016 and 2017) along with being a guest speaker on multiple occasions. He was recently invited to speak at the 2018 UC Irvine TEDx event.
Derek lives in Costa Mesa with his wife Sibley, their two kids, Shaw (14) and Charlie (11), and their dog Jet T.