A graduate of Edinburgh University, Derek qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1984 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in 1993. He gained a post-graduate Diploma in Arbitration from the College of Estate Management and, via examination, became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1996 and the National Association of Estate Agents in 2004. He has an LLM from Northumbria University in Advanced Property Law specialising in valuation, lease consultancy, asset management and property law.
Derek commenced his surveying career in Scotland in the District Valuer's Office and subsequently worked for the Prudential and as a partner in SE regional firm of Chartered Surveyors.
Throughout his career he has dealt with a wide range of property assets from residential to commercial real estate, forestry and agricultural interests to valuing fishing and sea-bed rights, mast sites, open cast mines and schools.
He has sat as an assessor of those seeking chartered status for 30 years and is a past member of the RICS International Governing Council and chairman of the Institution of Commercial and Business Agents. He is currently an external examiner to a national professional society and three UK universities.
He also presents training programmes for several major UK real estate and at other international destinations which have and include Bahrain, the Bahamas, Dubai, Russia and Europe. He is often asked to present workshops and speak at professional CPD events around the country.
He was made an Honoured Fellow of the National Association of Estate Agents in October 2014 for services to property education.
Associate Professor, Postgraduate Course Director (Real Estate)