Meet the Team - Derek Perrin

Posted on Monday, 8 June 2026

Meet Derek Perrin

Cyber and Information Security Analyst at Corporate Office

Derek is the newest member of ANZCO's cyber security team.

In his role as Cyber and Information Security Analyst, he’ll be helping educate the business on cyber security and running the popular Cyber Smart Week. He also has a governance and risk compliance aspect to his role.

Derek is originally from Saskatoon, Canada, where he worked as a poultry loader (a.k.a chicken catcher!), a System Administrator for a Canadian non-profit organisation, and a Territory Manager for Samsung Mobile. He moved to New Zealand in 2022 to complete a PhD in mathematics at the University of Canterbury, where he also tutored maths and helped train AI to solve math problems.

When Derek moved to New Zealand, he brought his family with him - his wife, his daughter, two huskies, and a cat. He enjoys spending time with his family, whether that’s doing crafts with his daughter, visiting the library, pool, or playground, or heading out for walks in the hills. After a busy day, Derek unwinds by taking the dogs for a walk.

Derek and his wife have a self-described ‘problem’ – they work their way through all the escape rooms in Christchurch, then have to wait a few months for new rooms to be available! When he's not busy with escape rooms, he enjoys knitting (mostly socks), bouldering, and cooking - he cooked 34 different lasagnes from a lasagne cookbook during Covid. 

He also keeps a finger on the pulse of the maths world. He enjoys reading current research and experimenting with mathematical modelling in finance. He’s currently working on a software project in computational algebra and is also a mentor with the Prison Mathematics Project.

Derek says his first language was Canadian English, and his second is New Zealand English - which he's still learning!

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