DEREK PIRES

Derek was born in Uganda and was fourteen when Idi Amin expelled the country's

Asian population in 1972. His family arrived in Hamilton with twenty-five dollars. His

father, who had held a senior government post, took work as a hospital warehouse man

and rebuilt from there. His mother opened a variety store, and by fifteen Derek was

keeping its books and filing the family's tax returns.

That start shaped everything after it. He worked his way through a commerce degree at

McMaster and into finance, driven by a decision he made early and never let go of. In

his words, the family started with nothing and he was not going to be poor again.

In 1989 his first child, Lauren, was born critically ill and spent two months in intensive

care. Doctors told him more than once that she might not survive, and no diagnosis

came for twenty years. When his wife Chrislyn left her own finance career to care for

their daughter, Derek stepped up to provide for all of them. He spent thirty-four years at

Nestlé and retired as CFO for North America, turning down senior roles in the

Caribbean and California along the way because they would have taken Lauren away

from her doctors at Sick Kids. He built a foundation solid enough that his family could

focus on Lauren's care and her future rather than on whether they would be alright.