Derek Bennington

Derek’s vision is to create an unforgettable experience for everyone he works with, from university students to startup owners to Fortune executive teams. His relentless pursuit and passion of leveraging the creative potential of each person to capture opportunity and create new valuable innovation shines through in everything he does.

Derek has over 20 years of small business and startup experience and has spent the past decade in corporate consulting focused on human centered design, lean methodology, business model innovation and creative problem solving. He is an expert in finding the synergy between strategy, strategic planning, operations and human centric solutions.

Derek focuses on end-to-end operational strategy, with a primary focus on innovation, creative problem solving, human centered design, lean strategy and business model innovation. His industry experience spans across public utlities, construction, healthcare, military, food manufacturing, beverage distribution, hospitality and retail. With a strong entrepreneurial mindset, Derek has both founded and supported founders of several start-ups and has worked with business owners to Fortune executive teams. He leverages his creative and analytical instincts to help clients develop unique and practical solutions. Derek is a skilled technical writer and an author, and publishes whitepapers on topics related to strategy, creative problem solving and innovation.

Derek holds an MBA with concentrations in Innovation and Statistical Analysis from the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is an Advanced Kirton-Adaption-Innovation (KAI) certified practitioner and holds a TRIZ Associate certification from the Altshuller Institute. Derek is also trained in change management, innovation and Lean agile, and has Level 1 Sommelier Certification.