About

I am  a digital native, an experienced project manager and a natural intermediary between technical and business-focused people.

“a very driven individual who sets and achieves ambitious targets, and is prepared to meet and overcome blockers in the process”. Graham Colclough (ex-Global VP for Capgemini)

I am technically-minded: Obtained my computer science degree with honours and always worked with technologists. Possess and appreciation for detail that allows me to read law like a lawyer, understand policy specifics and read/write specifications like an engineer. I can be trusted with drawing an accurate picture. I have worked in one of the most advanced R&D parks in Europe and led the introduction of eGovernment 2.0 in Malta, whose performance was deemed “remarkable”. (Capagemini’s report for the EU)

From a business perspective, I have a keen sense of economics, and am able to adapt my language and presentation for any audience. I have spent a large part of my professional life advising top public servants and entrepreneurs. I have drafted top level reports, prepared speeches and presentations and even filled in for senior members of government in occasions when they could not attend to public presentations.

Professional Profile

PROJECT DIRECTOR: Combination of education and 12 years experience mean a well-trained technical mind with excellent business sense. I am ideally placed as project manager for complex operations. I am structured in delivery and flexible to fit in technically challenging, politically sensitive environments. Certified PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Key Experience: enabled conclusion of important contracts in oil & gas industry during crisis years (2014-2016); directed the development of Malta’s EU-award winning eGovernment platform, as Department Manager (2009-2013); directed Malta’s eIdentity Management Reform (2005-2008).

GLOBAL OPERATIONS: I am self-driven and have a keen eye for detail. I can be trusted to meet the most ambitious targets, build honest, authentic professional and personable relationships that I can call upon as needed. I have been described as “engaging and inventive in approaching tasks, and collaborative in delivery”. I am experienced to direct a programme of changes to modernise business in the context of closing eight-figure global deals.

Key Experience: SME oil & gas multinational (2014-2016).

TECHNOLOGY: I have a long and proven track record in the strategic positioning of technology in corporate improvement programmes. Technology needs to be managed as a service, so as to guarantee that it meets management’s, employees’ and customers’ expectations. I offer a complete stack of professional services – here is my philosophy:

  1. provide the advisory services you need to ensure that technology becomes an integral part of the organisation – along with your processes and resources. We will work out a bottom-up approach to ensure that technology impacts the bottom line – be it efficiency, customer satisfaction, or profits.
  2. project-manage the implementation of technology projects. Too many technology projects get out of hand – costing more, taking longer and also not integrating with the rest of the processes or infrastructure. We will work together to create a controlled environment for implementing technology projects. Sometimes, complexity requires us to split these into smaller projects, managed in phases or by different teams, but we will make sure that they meet their business case.
  3. manage the change process to ensure that operations is ready to accept and absorb the new technology – reducing lead times which are traditionally required. We will work on the internal communication, stakeholder engagement, process definition and project hand-over to build trust and will for change.

Key Experience: Senior adviser and project director for public sector ICT (2004-2013).

I am also an energetic team worker, who adapts easily to cosmopolitan environments. I strive to bring together collective knowledge to identify practical solutions to project issues, when needed. I will apply a life’s worth of respectful relationships to nurture mutually beneficial partnerships.

I am also a widely sought-after speaker about online social engagement and eGovernment topics, and has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta.

Full CV / LinkedIn

If you wish to know more about me, please consult my LinkedIn profile or a PDF version of my CV.

Public Speaking, Coaching and Presentations

I am a regular speaker at seminars and conferences, and lead workshops in the area of eGovernment. The below list is a selection of public presentations. I have also led and participated in 1-1 workshops intended at knowledge-transfer to various developing nations. Between 2006 and 2013 I was also Malta’s designated expert on various European Commission working groups.

  1. Speaker in the 2016 project brokerage event for district heating: Communications and Online Engagement 12 October 2016 (Brussels, Belgium)
  2. Online engagement coach to the not for profit organisation Euroheat and Power (EHP/DHC+) 2015-2016 (Brussels, Belgium)
  3. Speaker in the opening session of the Caribbean Stakeholders’ Meeting. Open for Success – co-developing public services cannot be easier. 26 – 28 May 2014 (Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago).
  4. Speaker at the European Commission annual technology conference: DIGIT ICT 2013: Addressing Challenges the Digital Way. Empowering Citizen Activism through Social Media. 26 November 2013 (Brussels, Belgium).
  5. Speaker at the European Commission Workshop on Collaborative Production of eGovernment Services. Empowering Collaborative Production of Public Services through Social Media. 24 January 2013 (Brussels, Belgium).
  6. Moderator at the EuropeOne eGovernment conference organised by the Cyprus EU Presidency. Parallel Session 6: eGovernment: What’s in it for the Citizen?. 04 December 2012 (Nicosia, Cyprus)
  7. Speaker at the EuropeOne eGovernment conference organised by the Cyprus EU Presidency. Empowering Citizen Activism through Social Media. 03 December 2012 (Nicosia, Cyprus).
  8. Live interview on Gov 2.0 radio regarding the use of social media in public service settings. 28 June 2012 (London,UK).
  9. Speaker at the Citizen-2012 thought-leadership conference. The Emergence of the Digital Citizen. 28 June 2012 (London, UK). A blog post about the subject is available here. The conference organisers have also put a video online.
  10. Lecture on Public Service 2.0: the principles of digital government commanded by a customer-centric model where we need to deliver better, faster and with less resources at hand. SCEPSTA Conference. 19 June 2012 (CDRT, Floriana, Malta)
  11. Presentation on Supporting Web 2.0 Customer Engagement. The presentation dealt with challenges experienced in measuring the effectiveness of social media engagement in a government setting. 4th Workshop in Information and Communication Technology (WICT) organised by the Faculty of ICT – University of Malta on the 21 March 2012 (Sliema, Malta)
  12. Led workshop on Next Generation eGovernment, attended by students from the University of Manchester. 23 January 2012 (Sliema, Malta)
  13. Speaker at the launch of Next Generation eGovernment Platform. Unveiling demo of the Electronic Forms platform with 55 new eGovernment services. 30 November 2011 (Ministry for Infrastructure Transport and Communications, Valletta, Malta)
  14. Next Generation eGovernment eGovernment Ministerial Conference and Exhibition. 17 November 2011 (Poznan, Poland)
  15. eGovernment Introduction on the EGOV4U educational TV programme no. 5 October 2011
  16. EU Digital Agenda: Using technology to improve the quality of life Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee seminar on the EU 2020 Strategy. 19 October 2011 (Sliema, Malta)
  17. e-Government – Malta’s experience 2000-2011 Commonwealth COMNET Legal Frameworks Workshops. June 2011 (Valletta, Malta)
  18. Key Note on Open Government IDC’s IT Managers Forum and Expo 2010 Making IT Better – Finding Opportunities and Defining Value. 12 March 2010 (Westin Dragonara St. Julians, Malta)
  19. Coaching on the organisation and delivery of eGovernment to St Lucia senior public officials and the Minister responsible for Social Transformation and Human Services. 18-22 May 2009 (MITA, Malta) [Report prepared by the Small States Network for Economic Development – cached copy]
  20. Efficient government services through technology Interview to the Malta Independent – 30 July 2009
  21. Launch of the new Electronic Notifications System Interview to the Times of Malta – 31 July 2009
  22. The Malta e-ID 5th IDM workshop on Good Practices in Identity Management. February 2007 (Leuven, Belgium)
  23. The Malta e-ID MCA Annual Conference 2007

Academic Publications and Conferences:

(2004) Matrix Decomposition Algorithms for Feature Extraction. In: Pace G. and Cordina J., editors. CSAW 2004; 23 September 2004; Malta: Department of Computer science and AI, University of Malta; 2004. p71-77. (2003) Achieving Intelligent Clinical Decision Support through Orderset Management. In: Pace G. and Cordina J., editors. CSAW 2003; 10 July 2003; Malta: Department of Computer science and AI, University of Malta; 2003. p129-132. (2002) Caching Dynamic Content from Syndicated Web Sites (B.Sc. Hons. IT Dissertation, University of Malta). (2000) Java MPI Simulator (Project for EPCC Summer Scholarship Programme, Edinburgh – Scotland).

Endorsements – What people say about Derrick:

Derrick works hard and integrates into the corporate culture to deliver the results you expect. Here is what people have said about Derrick on LinkedIn:

“I have known Derrick in a professional capacity since the early 2000s, when as national representative, he played a key role in negotiations between Malta and the EU. My observations would be of someone who:
• Is a very driven individual who sets and achieves ambitious targets, and is prepared to meet and overcome blockers in the process;
• Builds a breadth of honest, open authentic professional and personable relationships that he can call upon as needed – at all levels;
• Is engaging and inventive in approaching tasks, and is collaborative in delivery;
• Has a deep understanding of the Digital Single Market, which is at the core of the EU’s 10 priorities and the basis for the policies on Competitiveness and Telecommunications. He was clearly behind why Malta sustained a leadership position across the EU over the years – and in so doing demonstrates comfort working at policy and technical levels;

During the last years, I have involved Derrick in a wide set of activities around Smart Cities – both in launching my business UrbanDNA and in setting up the Not-for-Profit called Connectivity Alliance, which will support collaborative activities to transform the EU ‘Cities’ market. This has reinforced the above attributes and added to them a very sound-minded business sense.” Graham Colclough – Ex-Global VP for Capgemini, Partner UrbanDNA (Worked alongside Derrick in Projects)

“He struck me immediately as an assertive, spontaneous strategist with a particular eye for quality and engagement of clients. Derrick knows his numbers and has the innate ability to manage the high level picture and to control / coordinate the attainment of diverse strategic objectives simultaneously.” Chris Busuttil – Project Manager at the Malta Information Technology Agency (Co-worker).

“He has outstanding business vision, backed by a wealth of experience. He is willing to listen and guide assertively, yet is impeccably courteous. He also has the innate capability to induce creativity. Overall, the combination of technical, management and people skills that he possesses are a rare combination and will prove priceless to any organization that acquires his services.” Godwin Caruana – Chief Technology Officer at the Malta Information Technology Agency (Senior Management).

“Derrick is a very energetic manager and keeps a very good focus on project deliverable and deadlines. He has a very good vision and is able to communicate the same vision to the other people on the project in order to achieve it.” Brian Spiteri – Project Manager at Exigy Ltd. (Supplier)

“Great guy, lots of energy, bursting with ideas.” Alan Caruana – Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Finance, Malta

Derrick achieves the results he sets out to do. Here is what the European Commission says about Malta says about the national digitisation, eGovernment project he led up to mid-2013:

“The European Commission (EC) has released a summary of the 2013 eGovernment Benchmarking Report which measures public sector performance in the deployment of eGovernment in European Union member states together with Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The report highlights Malta’s extraordinary results in terms of eGovernment. Malta is the best performing country amongst those measured and has obtained first place in eGovernment Maturity in all the measured Life Events, Cross Border Mobility and Transparent Government. Furthermore, Malta reached 1st place in the mystery shopper measurement of User Centric Government and attained 4th in Effective Government and 2nd in Key enablers, which further shows Malta’s commitment towards providing a top quality online Government service.” The European Commission (2015 Factsheet – eGovernment History May 2013 – pp.10)

The Capgemini report about Europe’s eGovernment states that Malta’s “eGovernment performance has been remarkable in achieving full online availability and sophistication and high user-experience scores”. (Malta Country Report 2009 pp.116)

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