Derk Erbe is Research Vice President, Supply Chain, Procurement and Energy at HFS Research. Derk is responsible for a compelling, leading-edge research agenda covering the core topics of interest for buyer and vendor communities in the areas of digital business transformation services and business operations, with a specific emphasis on key vertical markets, namely energy, utilities and resource industries.

He works with the HFS research team on key research areas that are impacting HFS clients, such as automation, SaaS and workforce transformation. Derk is responsible for Custom Research at HFS, working across the commercial and analyst team and client organizations developing and executing research deliverables.

Derk has a keen interest in business transformations, new business models, digital, mobile and IoT from a technology and change management perspective. Most recently, Derk was Co-Founder and CEO of Kea Company. He held several roles at Kea Company, serving as EVP Strategy and leading business advisory and consultancy. He was part of the team behind the annual global Analyst Relations Forum.

Throughout his career Derk has had a wide variety of leadership, consultancy and advisory roles with an emphasis on business processes, operations, enterprise architecture, change management and crisis management. He was a management consultant and interim manager at energy companies such as RWE/Essent and a natural gas giant, NGO’s, government agencies, tech startups, large technology vendors and service providers.

Derk is known for his ability to rapidly distill the top priorities in complex situations, and executing on these priorities with his “getting things done” mentality. Derk holds a Master of Science in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam.  If he is not cooking up plans for clients he likes to be in an actual kitchen. With a curious mind, he likes to get his head around complex stuff. When the realization sank in that his talent and height weren’t leading to the NBA he became a passive basketball connoisseur. When Derk is not travelling, business or pleasure, he resides near Amsterdam, the Netherlands with his wife and two sons.