The Scottish member of the team, 26 year old Derek moved down to England 8 years ago to study music. Derek holds both BMus[Hons] and Masters (MA) degrees in music to show for his 4 years at university, graduating with a commendation for his impressive MA composition portfolio at the Royal Albert Hall in London.  Performing and composing music from the age of 6, Derek is a classically trained musician on both the piano and violin. In his spare time Derek writes music for TV, film and media productions worldwide from his state of the art music studio in London. Credits include NASA, Greenpeace, Quizcall and of course The Jewellery Channel’s exciting music here in the UK, the US and Germany.

Derek has had a wide range of acting and presenting experience since graduating with well over 4000 hours of live presentation experience in the television industry under his belt. As well as The Jewellery Channel, you may have seen Derek on the “Daily Express Shopping Channel”, “Quizcall”, “The Great Big Quiz” and presenting regularly on the weekend UK terrestrial Five show “Quizcall on Five”. Derek also played the role of the straight talking weatherman “Joe Randall” in the 2005 BBC2 comedy series ‘Broken News’.Derek is also a long-suffering football fan and can be seen cheering on his childhood team Dunfermline Athletic, and he enjoys cycling, playing tennis and going to the cinema and theatre. Derek has been fascinated in gemstones since his father, a geography and geology teacher, introduced him to the world of colour, lustre and mythology that gemstones offer. "When I was younger, my father was always looking for fossils, rocks and pieces of shell to polish up and turn into something special. For me, the most exciting fact about the jewellery we offer on the channel is that the handcrafted quality and attention to detail is simply stunning, from the starting point of the gemstone in the ground to the finished piece. It’s scary to think of having to buy from high street jewellers again! In addition to being a presenter on the channel, Derek is also a regular customer buying many pieces for friends, family and his girlfriend.