Meet Lineup's New Director of Business Development, Derek Haese
The Lineup team is excited to announce Derek Haese as our new Director of Business Development.
Although he started in his new role on July 1, he's been a part of the NCARB and Lineup ecosystem for many years.
Derek started his career with NCARB in 2008 as a Customer Relations Specialist before being promoted to Assistant Vice President of Legislative Affairs & Member Board Relations, a position he held for over five years. Then, in 2017, Derek - a lifelong baseball player, Jackie Robinson Award winner, and former member of the George Washington University Baseball team - founded the Haese Academy, a baseball academy and community center designed to assist in breaking the cycle of extreme poverty in the town of Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic. The role he created for himself was unique and life-changing - a special blend of business and people duties that included both strategic partnerships and fundraising, as well as athletic training and developing student-athletes to be their community's next generation of role models.
Though still heavily involved in the Academy's success, Derek and his family relocated back to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 2022. He's thrilled to bring his passion for leadership, problem solving, and efficiency to Lineup's business development strategy.
We asked Derek a few questions about his experience with and excitement for Lineup, his favorite career aha! moment and how he'd describe the Lineup team - in just one sentence.
Q&A with Derek
Lineup: You have a unique career story and experience with Lineup. When did you first work with the software?
Derek Haese (DH): "I have been fortunate in my professional life to work alongside many brilliant minds. Minds that are constantly seeking out inefficiencies and creating solutions. This was particularly true during my tenure at NCARB where I was lucky to take part in the initial development of the Lineup solution.
Each year, my department was responsible for wrangling 200-250 volunteers to serve on a dozen or so committees responsible for driving organizational success. We utilized many disconnected systems to try and identify that perfect team of volunteers. Those managing committees would then come together and fight over their starting nine. It was a yearly battle.
Enter Guillermo Ortiz de Zarate (President of Lineup & Chief Strategy Officer at NCARB) and his team. After months of interviews and continuous agile development, they built a world-class system that combined all these disconnected systems (spreadsheets, emails, forms, surveys, evals.) and provided transparency into how the entire organization managed volunteers. Once implemented, it was only a matter of clicks, a quick discussion, and boom - our teams were set. Most importantly, it brought us all together and gave us a better understanding of the work of our colleagues. We became a better team."
Lineup: What do you wish more leaders and organizations knew about the Lineup platform and what it makes possible for people?
DH: "Lineup is an incredibly flexible software solution that enables companies to customize the user experience to meet their individual needs and goals. We are also incredibly quick and easy to implement. We have a top-shelf team that works diligently and honestly with each new client to help them first identify their goals of using the software and then design the best use case to meet those goals. The best part - we accomplish this all within a matter of weeks. Ease of implementation is definitely one of our best qualities as a software company.
Once implemented, the true power of the system comes to the forefront. Lineup is an incredible tool that enables organizations and leaders to recruit, vet, engage, develop, and retain their most important asset – their people! With real data and intentional recruitment/ placement/assignment, Lineup enables leaders and teams to know and understand their people, identify patterns in performance, learn what makes their people happy, recognize opportunities to optimize productivity, and ensure you have everyone in the right position to maximize both individual and company success."
Lineup: As an incredibly powerful resource that can do many things, one major thing Lineup can do is make sure leaders know how to manage and position the right person in the right role - whether that's a job or a volunteer opportunity. Why do organizations need the power to do that today more than ever?
DH: “I love this question. Positioning the right person in the right role, in my opinion, is one of the biggest challenges facing employers today. It is a challenge because gone are the days of hiring someone to fill a role within your organization and expecting them to be happy in that role for the next 30 years. Just like technology, people are learning, growing, and advancing every single day. The employee that you hired just a few years ago may be a different person today with different ambitions or career goals. It is imperative that leaders continuously connect with their people, understand what motivates them, provide them with opportunities in which they feel they are contributing in a meaningful way, and help them develop into their own best self – whatever that may mean for the individual. Lineup is the best tool I have come across in my professional career that makes this easy."
Lineup: In one sentence, how do you describe the lineup team?
DH: "In the age of the selfie, I am excited to be part of a team that is other-centered and outwardly focused trying to make the lives of those around them and in their professional sphere better every day."
Lineup: What excites you about where Lineup is today and where it's going in the future?
DH: "Our client base is made up of companies from a variety of different industries (from large S&P 500 companies, to certifying entities and credentialing organizations, to very small non-profits that rely on volunteers to drive their organization). On average, they have been with us for numerous years. As a team, we work hard to keep an open and honest dialogue with each of them and are not only offering support but also soliciting feedback. This creates a sense that we are long-term partners. Because of this, we are constantly innovating and striving to make Lineup a more robust solution that will continue to be sought after and applicable in many different verticals. The future is bright."
Lineup: What's your favorite career highlight and/or favorite aha! moment along the way?
DH: "I have many favorite career highlights dating all the way back to my days as a Division I athlete; far too many to list here. I do, however, have a favorite aha! moment. It was actually the day I first talked with my good friend and former colleague about a job opportunity with a company called Lineup. It was at that moment that I realized my journey as a professional – while spanning numerous companies, roles, and even countries - was all connected, impeccably timed, and always a team effort. Being a Division I athlete taught me skills that enabled success at my first job as a paralegal at a law firm. Skills and abilities learned there transitioned to the non-profit space where I worked my way up to becoming part of a fantastic management team. That set me up for success in starting my own non-profit with my wife in the Dominican Republic and developing a board of directors.
Finally, fundraising and turning an idea on paper into a thriving sports and education center with that team has helped me hit the ground running with Lineup, a company that has recently done the same. I am excited to be a part of the incredible team at Lineup and look forward to that next career highlight."
