PRIVATE COMPANY
Derrick Porter
Board Member | Beauty Industry Group
Current boards: Beauty Industry Group, Performance Beauty Group, World Trade Center Utah
Eighteen years ago, Derrick Porter took a leap of faith that would transform both his life and an entire industry: He helped build Beauty Industry Group (BIG) and served as its CEO for nearly two decades.
“The first time I put a board together for Beauty Industry Group, I wasn’t sure where it would lead,” he admits. “After several years of watching that board build and professionalize and shape my business, it enabled us to achieve really incredible results. … I became a better CEO as I sought to listen to the board members and apply their guidance and direction. [The board] enabled me to scale faster.”
Today, Derrick continues to apply his entrepreneurial insights as a BIG board member and is proud to serve on the boards of Performance Beauty Group and World Trade Center Utah. Throughout each of his appointments, he most enjoys helping shape and build the company’s people — the “foundation” of the business, as he calls them — and also finds deep satisfaction in seeing how board guidance translates into organizational success.
“The thing I’m most proud of is being able to watch the incredible success of the companies on which I get to serve as a member of the board — watching them take feedback, direction, counsel and guidance from the board, and then implement that into their daily decisions,” he says.
Though he’s recognized for his important contributions to board leadership, Derrick humbly maintains that he’s often the greatest beneficiary of boardroom interactions, consistently learning from fellow members. This humble approach to governance informs his advice for those beginning their board service journeys: A good board member asks the right questions.
“The thing that separates the best [board members] from the rest is not those that talk the most and show us how much they know, but it’s those that ask the right questions,” Derrick says. “Asking the right questions in the right moment is what unlocks the hidden treasures and hidden opportunities that enable management teams to build and to scale faster than they ever might have without.”
