Derek has a wide breadth of brand and marketing management experience with a number of major multi-national corporations including Robin Hood Multifoods, RJ Reynolds, Kraft /Pillsbury and Unilever Canada, where he had responsibility for leading and mentoring numerous marketing and sales teams on many well known brand names.

Derek has successfully led numerous international teams, with diverse cultural backgrounds, in a wide range of new business and new product development initiatives throughout the world. As VP Marketing and Business Development for Connors Bros/Weston Seafoods, he was responsible for the export marketing and distribution of Connors Bros/Weston products in over 60 countries. He has led many successful export development initiatives and major investment activities in Mexico, the USA, and Australia/New Zealand and participated in investment and business building activities in the UK and EU as well as procurement strategies in Asia. These included major investments in Connors Seafoods UK and strategic custom packing contracts with processing companies in Thailand, Indonesia the Philippians, Korea and Chile.

As the Managing Partner of Venture Planning Partners, Derek Mitchell is the senior lead consultant.  He has successfully facilitated and led numerous strategic planning, change management, organizational development projects, community based multiple stakeholder collaborative initiatives and successful new business/new venture capital and export development initiatives for a broad and diverse cross section of public/NGO and private sector clients including; Canadian government agencies and departments, public sector community NGOs, cooperatives and large manufacturing companies. His consulting experience also includes boards of director governance training and development, strategic planning and implementation, financial management and reporting and fundraising development for NGOs. Derek has worked in close collaboration with a number of Canadian government departments and funding agencies including Justice Canada, Human Resource & Social Development Canada and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Derek has also recently worked for the Canadian International Development Agency [CIDA] in a private sector capacity building program in Bangladesh, for the communication and the social marketing sectors.

Derek is a past Director of the Board of Directors of St. George’s YouthNet, an inner city mentoring program for young children and youth and he is also a Scout and Venturer advisor for inner city youth.  He has recently worked for a number of years as an advisor and strategic planning consultant to the Board of the Halifax Inner City Initiative, a community development organization working to improve the quality of life for inner city residents.

Derek has a BA from the University of Kings College in Political Science and Economics and an MBA from Dalhousie University in Marketing and Finance. He is currently completing a Masters of Theology at the Atlantic School of Theology / St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His thesis and research focus deals with the topics of social responsibility and the ethics of judgment and choice, for both individuals and organizations.

Robert has a wide range experience in new business startups, turnarounds and ongoing operations. His international consulting and teaching experience includes the emerging markets of China and Eastern Europe. His broad strategic planning background includes; strategic formulation workshops for large firms and organizations, feasibility studies and new venture planning services for entrepreneurs, turnaround and exit strategies and succession management counseling to family businesses. Robert also has recently been involved with a number of business consulting activities in Slovenia.

Robert currently teaches strategic management, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, new venture creation and managing the family enterprise at the Dalhousie Business School .  He has also taught internationally. This includes teaching entrepreneurship in the MBA Program at Riga Business School , Riga Technical University , Riga , Latvia .  He developed and delivered a strategic management course in the MBA Program at Xiamen University for the Canada-China Management Education Program Phase II, Dalhousie University / Xiamen University , Xiamen , China .  He also developed and delivered a doctoral seminar in strategic management at Xian Jiaotong University , Xian, China .

He is an accomplished case writer and researcher and he has written extensively on strategic planning and management, strategy formulation and implementation, family business management, organizational capability assessment, entrepreneurship and new venture creation in numerous cases and articles in the leading Canadian strategic management text books.

He has served on the board of directors of several small and medium-sized businesses and organizations.  He is a member of the Academy of Management , the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise Family Firm Institute and World Association of Case Research and Application.  He has served extensively on numerous enterprise development and academic planning and budget committees both a Dalhousie University and Henson College . Robert is a former Director of the Dalhousie Shad Valley progam for youth mentoring.

Robert academic achievements include a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario , a Master of Management from Northwestern University Evanston , Illinois and a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University , Halifax , Nova Scotia .

Venture Planning Partners also has a broad International Network of associated and aligned agencies in public relations, advertising, market research, package design and syndicated market measurement in the USA, UK, Asia, Australia & New Zealand, the EU, Mexico and central America to meet any of your international marketing, advertising, export and business development needs.