In a previous life, Derek was a sports reporter. But as the newspaper industry changed he returned to school and earned a Masters in Communication Leadership 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. Banyan Branch helped clients take storytelling to the next level.

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 role at Amazon. Six years later, Derek is a communications manager and content strategist at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he leads a team of experts driving the global content strategy for the AWS Partner Network (APN). Derek is the editor of the AWS Partner blog, publishing more than 2,000 posts about cloud computing, and he still freelance writes for the University of Washington magazine.

Ask him about:

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