Bio

Derek is an Operating Partner at Asterion Industrial Partners, having joined in 2021. He brings to the team over 35 years of industrial experience in the telecoms sector, having worked at BT/ Cellnet and O2 / Telefonica in senior management positions as well as holding non-executive board roles in a number of telecoms infrastructure and digital platforms in the UK. During his time at Telefonica UK (O2), he served as the Chief Information / Technology Officer and latterly as Chief Operating Officer of the £12bn EV group. In his decade long role as COO, he led a team of 2,500 professionals with responsibility for Network, IT, Customer Service, Business Transformation, 5G, B2B Service Management and Customer Operations, Corporate Fraud & Security, Supply Chain and Property. This included among others the oversight of an important cross industry initiative to increase collaboration and engagement with government and the regulator, driving policy change to increase mobile connectivity across rural UK in support of 5G, the delivery of major initiatives such as network rollout, growth and the government’s Smart Metering initiative. He also served as the chairman of CTIL, Telefonica’s network sharing JV with Vodafone, Enterprise Customer Advisory Board and the retailer Shop Direct’s Digital Advisory Board. Derek holds a MSc in Telecom Business from University College London.