Dmitriy Derkach

I am from Russia but I have lived half of my life abroad: in Brazil as a child, and in the past 11 years in the Netherlands. Living in different countries, traveling, and meeting people from various walks of life made me appreciate the diversity of cultures and uniqueness of people. Though I longed for a creative occupation, it did not seem like a real option growing up in Russia in the 90s. So I made safe choices and graduated from a top Russian university, majoring in Finance and International Economy. Despite that, I landed in the legal profession of a tax consultant. At that time it felt like the right thing to do because the businesses in Russia were transiting to transparency and compliance and I was happy to be a part of the process.

On the creative side of things, I started writing songs, helping friends with copyright projects, and I even co-created an award-winning employment branding campaign for PwC Russia. PwC offered me an opportunity to go to the Netherlands for a secondment, which transformed into a long career journey. I am grateful to the many supportive and unsupportive people who helped shape the leader I am today. But I feel the next step requires me to reconnect with who I wanted to be and get inspired by new people and ideas in THNK.