Spotlight: Derek Terry on building out the Charles Aris hospitality vertical

Derek Terry had just relocated to North Carolina from Texas when Charles Aris Vice President Jill Jitima reached out with an opportunity to help build the firm’s hospitality recruiting vertical. Derek’s passion for people and food, plus his deep leadership experience, made him a strong candidate for Jill to partner with.

Early in their careers, Jill and Derek worked alongside each other at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in a capacity that required being in the field and managing large teams. In 2011, Jill joined Charles Aris as a recruiter focused on filling executive-level roles in the consumer space, and she currently leads the Consumer, Retail and Hospitality Practice.

A decade later, as Jill and her practice director Julia Opaleski began scaling the hospitality industry within the consumer and retail practice, she thought back to her time with Derek. Jill knew Derek’s skillset of overall resilience, empathy, drive and determination paired with his love for consumer products would make him a natural leader in hospitality — and in executive search, a business where success relies on building genuine relationships.

After reconnecting with Jill, hearing her vision for this recruiting practice at Charles Aris and moving states for his wife Jennifer’s career, Derek found himself signing on as a senior associate practice leader.

Derek grew up in Montgomery, West Virginia and pursued athletics in high school and college. He first joined Marshall University for basketball and transferred to West Virginia State to focus on a degree in business management. Throughout his life, Derek says he was very business-minded and never content with being just a consumer.

Instead, when he visited new businesses or restaurants, he couldn’t help but analyze their operations and think about how they could improve. While working towards his degree, Derek landed an internship at Enterprise where he’d meet Jill some years later, and this internship quickly transformed into a long-term career.

After college, Derek moved up the ranks in his career and was offered a leadership position in Dallas, one of his business’s largest markets. Derek made the move despite having minimal family or connections in Texas, and while supporting his wife’s growing career in occupational therapy. It was a risk, but ultimately a great career success. Derek managed his own consumer operation, hired his entire team of 165 employees and served as a founding member of the company’s first diversity committee.

Five years after his promotion and move to Dallas, Jennifer was offered a promotion that required a move to Charlotte, North Carolina. This move meant that Derek would have to leave a successful career, but it also offered his family greater stability and brought them closer to relatives in southwestern North Carolina. The family chose to pursue his wife’s career, and Derek took the opportunity to build on a lifelong passion: Cooking.

Shortly after moving to Charlotte, Derek enrolled in the culinary arts program at Central Piedmont Community College to obtain a two-year degree. After earning this degree and perfecting his skills in the kitchen, Derek launched his own catering company: Savory by DDT. At the same time his new business took off, the opportunity at Charles Aris came knocking.

Derek had Charles Aris on his radar for several years, but he wasn’t ready to make the jump until 2022. When he did begin to seriously consider rejoining his former colleague in the world of executive search, Derek said the firm’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, both internally and in its search work, helped seal his decision.

According to Derek, Charles Aris presented the opportunity to do meaningful work; he could use his experience to pursue a leadership role at the new firm and help his clients transform their own businesses with diversity at front of mind.

After the height of the pandemic, Charles Aris also witnessed a growing demand for top strategic talent in the hospitality industry, which Derek was well-suited to address given his background in consumer business. Now, as a senior associate practice leader at the firm, Derek focuses his recruiting efforts on landing current and former management consultants from the top-tier strategy firms for clients in the hospitality space, including but not limited to travel, leisure, entertainment, tourism and restaurants.

Looking forward, Derek is excited to grow in his role at Charles Aris, contribute to the firm’s unique culture and work with a diverse slate of clients and candidates in corporate America — all while continuing to run his catering company and spending time with his family as proud residents of the Tar Heel State.

To learn more about our recruiting capabilities in the consumer, retail and hospitality space, contact Derek Terry at derek.terry@charlesaris.com or (336) 217-9185.