Responsible for ensuring that Jensen Hughes is at the leading edge of innovation, quality and thought leadership across the company. The role is accountable for driving technical excellence, industry relations, and tech enablement of the business. Leading the technology function: IT, Enterprise Applications, and Information Security. Concurrently, serving as the Global Service Line leader for Fire + Building Safety which represents 70% of the JH business. These new positions are in addition to the Global Project Delivery performance responsibilities outlined in the prior role below. Member of the Executive Leadership Team. Direct report to the CEO.

Responsible for Global Project Delivery performance. In 21 months, Derek’s initiatives improved aggregate project delivery from a $10.6M write-down (2020) to a $6.5M pick-up (2023). This translates to $200M in total enterprise value creation. Performance has been improved through a focused program on people, process, and tools which was shaped by a root cause assessment. Project delivery tools centered on pricing/costing and project performance BI dashboards. Organically developed and delivered project manager (PM) training hit all 500+ PMs. A comprehensive accountability loop was launched to drive commitment to sold margins and disciplined pursuit/follow-up on change orders. The resulting swing of $17M project revenue (First year improvement of 85%, Year 2 improvement of 350%) drops to the bottom line. Led due diligence for operations in support of M&A activities. Direct report to the COO.

North America Operations P&L leader for the balance of 2020 which represented one half of Jensen Hughes’s top line revenue and the EBITDA engine of the firm. 2020 performance headlines: $140M revenue at a 25% net margin. Lead an operational division of ~800 staff through the COVID pandemic and recovered from the early down draft in the built environment space. Successfully recovered/improved on numerous pre-COVID KPIs: gross margin, net margin, billability, backlog, and DSO (11-day improvement over 2019). Maintained work force stability during cash conservation austerity measures which required leadership finesse. Direct report to the COO.

Full P&L responsibility for worldwide company operations of 1,100 professional staff and $285M revenue (2020). Responsible for delivering revenue & EBITDA growth in a private equity driven environment. Structure included the following divisions: Fire, Building Safety; Risks + Hazards; Security, Risk and Emergency Management; Forensics; Canada; Middle East; Asia; UK; and Software Technology. Primarily focused on turning around lower performing divisions, upgrading leadership, and building healthy teams. Direct report to CEO and member of executive leadership team.

P&L responsibility for US core engineering consulting business in Fire/Life Safety services consisting of over 40 locations, 400+ professional staff, and $115M revenue. Purview included budgeting, strategy development, workforce expansion/contraction, working capital, orders, backlog and other KPIs. Initiatives focused on legacy company integration, move to matrix organization, building a regional leadership team, development and maturing of front-line leadership (office directors) and sourcing/due diligence of M&A targets. Partnered across all functional areas of the business to drive performance. Top organic growth performance of any division during this period. JH Corporate Compliance Officer (CCO).

Built from ground up and led corporate project management office (PMO). Direct report to CEO and member of executive leadership team responsible for delivering organic and inorganic growth. PMO focused on driving process improvements, organizational efficiencies, and knowledge management. Launched MS Yammer platform, Knowledge Sharing Center, and sponsored both 2nd Annual New Associate Boot Camp and 1st Annual Project Manager University. Responsible for leading IT infrastructure team with focus on increased capabilities while reducing operational costs. IT expanded services with cost saving of $1.6M on a $7M budget. Led corporate due diligence team for RPA acquisition. Led business area teams for Case Forensics integration. 401K steering committee member (ongoing).

Senior Vice President of operations for the East US Region which included 18 offices and 200 employees with full operating and P&L responsibilities for a $50M regional business. Active in acquisition integrations, business strategy development, and organic growth initiatives. Led Business Process Improvement (BPI) team including end to end Jensen Hughes process mapping effort. Partnered with CFO to drive improvements around AR, deferred revenue, invoicing and reporting improvements. Led development of Large Project Review process and roll out.

Vice President responsible for business operations in the Mid Atlantic region which included offices in Baltimore; Fairfax VA; Virginia Beach, VA; and Raleigh NC. Manage the Baltimore HQ office which has 110 staff. Operational responsibilities include business development, business strategy, operational growth, hiring, staff development, and all aspects of financial performance for the Mid Atlantic group.Continued participation on the Senior Leadership team. These activities/responsibilities include integration of acquisitions, real estate portfolio development/management, strategic planning, IT steering committee, and critical external business communications projects.

Held various, concurrent, roles over this time frame as part of the senior management team. CAO/CIO (Hughes Associates, Inc.) roles overlapped operational responsibilities as the leadership team navigated the passing of our CEO and the acquisition/integration of our largest competitor (RJA Group) under ownership of our private equity partner Huron Capital (2011). The integration of Hughes Associates and RJA created the largest multinational fire protection and life safety engineering consulting firm based in the US. Accomplished results through formulating and executing strategic business development plans, providing key tools for supervisors and project managers to increase business efficiencies, expanded JH offerings into new service areas, acquired new clients, and partnered with internal business functions to promote growth through acquisitions and organic expansion.

Responsible for the long-term strategic growth of the corporation's IT infrastructure, included ongoing maintenance and the provision of consistently reliable critical services. Successfully overhauled the IT infrastructure with highly reliable, scalable solutions that accommodated 300% corporate growth while reducing costs by over 50%. Responsibilities include budget development, new technology adoption, strategic options identification and down select, vendor vetting and selection for outsourcing support, and management of internal and external resources. Actively managed the integration of IT systems and needs associated with acquisitions. Concurrent with various operational roles during this period. Direct report to president/CEO.Developed, supported, and maintained a wide range of platforms/services/software including: redundant email servers (up for 3 years without unplanned down time); finance suite of Deltek, CostPoint, and Time and Expense; SharePoint intranet; file servers (HQ and outside offices); computational Linux cluster; AutoCAD, Microstation, and Revit deployment; virtualization of server farm using VMware/EXSi; Backup Exec (disk storage); Library software (Reference Manager); software product development (.net); SQL; FDS; HEATING; Fluent; Microsoft suite products. Led the redesign and development of the corporate web site. Managed SEO consultants. Executed security auditing and improved security architecture.

Cultivated highly adaptable, effective and flexible cross-cultural skills to work closely with multicultural/multinational project teams. Managed offices in Singapore and Taiwan including P&L statements, budgeting, performance, business development, and all stages of the international project management lifecycle. Management responsibilities included navigating the establishment of branch offices, interfacing with local counsel, coordination with local accountants, and start-up/wind-up of foreign branch offices.