Derek is Vice President, Venture Investments, for Leaps by Bayer. The mission of Leaps is to invest in breakthrough technologies and business models that are solving fundamental challenges in health and agriculture. Derek has been investing in agricultural and food technologies since 2009, and has served on the boards of companies in multiple areas spanning synthetic biology, biologicals, chemistry, and digital farming technologies.
He has been the founding investor for several companies. Derek is passionate about translating frontier areas of biology and technology into products that can be scaled with a positive impact. He received a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard and did his undergraduate studies at Stanford University.
