Sir Richard Branson     

A past client of Derek’s, ExactTarget, invited Derek to Join Sir Richard Branson at their global conference in Indianapolis. Ironically Sir Richard’s racing team, Virgin Racing, is trying to recruit Derek’s son Conor to race for them in Europe next season. Sir Richards phiosophy of “Screw it - Let’s do it” drew much laughter. He was even invited to dinner at the home of an ExactTarget employee. The audacity again brought much laughter. Derek and Sir Richard have long time connections as Derek's race engineer in Formula One in 1981, is a close personal friend of Sir Richards.

Sir Richards philosophy of "taking risks" , develop people, and have fun doing it was very much aligned with Derek's Complete Champion Model.