Derek Hatchard

About

I have worn a number of hats over the years but I identify foremost as a software builder. I ran a software development agency called Ardent Development for about a decade. During that time I led our contract and in-house software projects and ran the overall business. I also worked on developer-oriented content (primarily in the Microsoft developer ecosystem) including books, magazine articles, demos, certification test prep questions, blog posts, and keynote slides. I was also a Microsoft MVP, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and Microsoft Regional director back in those days.

In 2010, I joined social media monitoring startup Radian6 as a software architect. We were acquired by Salesforce the next year and I spent six years there in architecture and product management leadership roles.

I returned to Salesforce in 2021 to work on the latest generation of Marketing Cloud apps and services, first as an architect and then leading a set of teams building the core app experience.

In between those times at Salesforce, I was the CTO at Riddl, a SaaS startup in the ESG space where we built tools for impact data collection, collaboration, and reporting.

I write and podcast about working in tech and tech-adjacent roles at Debugging Work.