In a previous life, Derek was a sports reporter. But as the newspaper industry changed he returned to school and earned a Comm Lead degree in 2011.

This led Derek to Banyan Branch, a leading social media and digital marketing agency that was later acquired by Deloitte. His team drove high-profile strategies for the Gates Foundation, Providence Medical Group, National Civil Rights Museum, and many others.

From there, Derek traded in his private sector hat for a fantastic opportunity in public service. As King County’s digital media manager, he built the second-largest social media program of any county government in America. King County (where Seattle is located) earned “Top 10 Digital County” awards four straight years from the Center for Digital Government, including first-place honors in 2017. Here, Derek helped King County do old things in new ways.

A brief-but-exciting stint on the Starbucks public affairs team paved the way for a position at Amazon. After 6+ years in a content manager role at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Derek joined the company’s retail division as a Sr. Editor on the strategic communications team, where he develops content that helps selling partners grow successful businesses on Amazon.com. 

Derek still freelance writes for the University of Washington magazine, covering sports and small business entrepreneurship. Check out his story on the founders of Georgetown Brewing!

Ask him about:

• Strategic communications
• Product marketing
• Technical writing
• Content strategy
• Marketing analytics
• Interviewing and story development