Derek joined the University of South Carolina in November of 2018 as the Assistant Vice President of Advancement Services. His prior experience includes 11 years at the University of Georgia and 11 years at General Motors®. In his current role, he is managing a team to help make the organization more efficient by implementing a new CRM. Derek was the Senior Director of Advancement Services at University of Georgia and served as the project lead on Georgia’s conversion from a mid-mainframe green screen to Blackbaud CRM™, which went live five years ago. Since going live, continuous improvements in business processes, data quality, and constant change management kept him busy. Derek is the current chair of the Blackbaud CRM Higher Education Product Advisory Group and co-chair of the Advancement Management Best Practices Committee of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals®. He loves playing basketball, officiating volleyball, and raising two teenage girls with his wife, Kollette, of 18 years.