Derrick has spent the past 20+ years helping organizations release the full potential of their brands. His experience is as extensive as it is diverse, encompassing the disciplines of brand strategy, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. At The Blake Project he manages daily operations and serves in the delivery of brand stewardship services as a senior brand strategist.

Prior to launching The Blake Project in 2003, Derrick held rewarding leadership roles at global advertising agency leader Saatchi & Saatchi as well as at three other respected advertising agencies. He credits his focus on brand strategy with his ability to align organizations with unmet customer needs. He has helped many respected brands arrive at new and optimistic decisions about their competitive future including Coca-Cola, Footjoy, Intel, Nestle and Wyndham Hotels Worldwide.

Derrick’s emphasis has been to push the limits of what an independent, strategic brand consultancy can lend toward industry innovation. In 2006 he conceptualized and launched Branding Strategy Insider to help marketing oriented leaders and professionals build strong brands. Today his vision serves 45,000+ marketers daily and is recognized by Advertising Age as the leading online resource for brand strategy and management.

His quest to better equip marketers for the challenges of an over-communicated society, led to the creation of The Un-Conference: 360°of Brand Strategy for a Changing World. A unique, competitive-learning experience that features marketers competing in a team environment, working together to gain the tools and techniques needed to face the real-world marketing issues of the day. As in the marketplace, some will win. Some will lose. All will learn™.

Derrick is quoted regularly in the business press in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Adweek, Yahoo News, Inc. Magazine, London Times and has been a nationally featured brand management expert on ABC News.

Most notably, he has worked with The White House Press Corps and co-led the brand strategy effort for the Statue of Liberty.