Derrick is a well-rounded marketing professional with over fourteen years of experience across several products and service accounts in both general market and multicultural segments. He has been a military brat, a filmmaker, and a high school track record holder. He’s flipped burgers, rolled pretzels and manned an air-belt line for a major parcel company. He is living proof that creative, corporate life and entrepreneurship can peacefully coexist in one brain. As a fine artist by trade, his first love was architecture, however, when his math and science scores proved him wrong, he reluctantly pursued a career in advertising and visual communications.

Derrick is also an early adopter and second-generation innovator in utilizing the urban/youth culture and mindset in advertising across all mediums, including non-traditional and social executions. His work has provided successful results for Nissan, AT&T, BellSouth, Coca-Cola, Russell Athletic, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Heineken. In his last position, he was an Associate Creative Director at Fluent360 (the multicultural arm off DDB Chicago) working on the Nissan & Infiniti accounts. He has also held full-time creative positions at Burrell, AT&T, PanaVista (Ryan Partnership) WestWayne and BBDO in Atlanta. His work was featured in Adweek, Communication Arts, Lurzer’s Archive and HOW Magazine and garnered him recognition for creative excellence at the POPAI Awards, Hugo Awards, and of course, the Chicago Addy Awards.

In his leisure time, Derrick enjoys experiencing the joys of parenthood and the pitfalls of being an occasional and talentless golfer. He has three children: Jasmin, Reece, and Hillman. Also note, he can’t survive a week without Mexican food and will drop everything to watch his beloved Dallas Cowboys. Derrick holds a BFA from Virginia State University; and an MBA from Kennesaw State.