He earned a PhD from the University of Mississippi in 2014. He is a certified public accountant and internal auditor. He spent six years in practice as a senior internal auditor for Federal Express in both its domestic and international operations. Dereck’s research focuses on two primary areas: expertise with a specific emphasis on internal and external auditors as experts and their use of others’ expertise and the strategic interaction between auditors and managers. He uses psychology and economics-based theories and both experimental and archival data to examine various topics within these two primary areas.