Derrick

What Derrick is building

I have always believed in the power of connection to enable personal and professional growth, not as a strategy, but as something I've felt to be true in my own life, again and again. That belief is why SB&I matters so much to me. For most of my career I worked across large multi-national organisations: big problems, big teams, big systems. There was a lot to learn there, and I don't regret a moment of it. But somewhere along the way I started to notice that the scale of the work didn't always match the scale of what felt meaningful. I was solving problems for institutions I'd likely never set foot in twice, for outcomes I'd rarely see play out. So I started looking inward, and closer to home. Stroud has a culture I find genuinely remarkable, independent, creative, fiercely community-minded, and being part of it reminded me of something I think the corporate world quietly trains you to forget: that growth isn't always about getting bigger. Sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes it's slowing down enough to get the foundations right, to understand what you're actually building and why, and to find your purpose before you chase your next milestone. I think this has been a consistent story in my life, but maybe I am now just slowing down enough to realise how I can step up.