Director, UI / UX

Derek serves as Director of UI / UX at PIP, leading experience design across the firm’s client engagements and internal processes. He partners with Private Equity firms and Portfolio Company operators to understand complex business problems, conduct rigorous user research, and designs product solutions that fit those people and their needs. He joined PIP following the firm’s acquisition of AlphaAdvisors.

Derek brings nearly two decades of design leadership grounded in human-centered design practice, spanning financial services, entertainment, and applied AI. The through-line is consistent: start by understanding the needs of the user, diagram and map their processes, and design interfaces and service solutions that reduce friction and build trust. At AlphaAdvisors, he is leading the redesign of internal credit applications for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, developing a scalable design framework that replaces manual workarounds with cleaner workflows.

Prior to AlphaAdvisors, Derek spent seven years at Principal Financial Group where he led a customer-centric design organization, established and improved UX standards and rituals, led development of a new design system, and partnered with Product and Engineering to implement new ways of working. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at 42 Entertainment designing immersive campaigns for clients like Warner Brothers, Ford, Sony, and Wrigley, including the Cannes Grand Prix–winning Why So Serious? campaign for The Dark Knight. 

Derek holds a BA in Film and Writing from Emerson College and is based in Washington, DC.