Derek is founder of the consulting firm Spaceport Associates (Maine, USA). He is also a lecturer, and author of four non-fiction books on space development. He is also a retired co-chair of the Lunar Commerce and Economics (LCE) Working Group of the Moon Village Association (which has Observer Status at UNCOPUOS), having produced the Lunar Commerce Portfolio, which represents the best available international data on commercial lunar markets. His qualifications are in Physics, Mathematics, Management Studies, and Accounting.

In the specific area of commercial development of the Moon, Derek was Vice Chair of the international judging panel for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a competition to encourage the development of small low-cost lander and rover payloads for $40M in prize money. He then joined the Leadership Board of the NGO ForAllMoonkind, which has Observer Status at the UNCOPUOS in Vienna, and in that capacity took part in a panel presentation to delegates in June 2019, explaining the need for protections of Lunar Legacy Sites.