Derek Steele is the group vice president of marketing and customer strategy at Meijer, a privately-owned and family-operated retailer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Meijer operates more than 500 supercenters, neighborhood markets, Meijer Grocery and Express locations throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. Steele joined Meijer in 2008 and has spent the past 16 years leading strategic projects across merchandising and marketing—working to merge data-driven insights with his deep understanding of customer needs.
In his current role, Steele leads the strategy and execution of brand and promotional marketing, e-commerce, customer loyalty, Own Brand, and space planning, along with the new Meijer Retail Media capability. In his previous role as vice president of customer strategy, Steele led the rollout and implementation of the Meijer pick up and home delivery initiatives. Following a successful launch, this program became even more important to customers during the COVID-19 pandemic and has now accounted for more than 50 million transactions. Additionally, Steele led the rollout of the enhanced mPerks program in 2023, increasing the amount of savings delivered to customers and the number of users across the company’s footprint. As director of dairy merchandising, Steele led the launch of the popular Purple Cow ice cream brand, now one of the retailer’s most well-known Own Brands.
Steele holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a minor in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. Prior to his career at Meijer, he worked as a flight control systems engineer for the Space Shuttle program at Boeing. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. Steele serves on the board of directors of the Western Michigan Better Business Bureau and Hand2Hand, a West Michigan organization working to eliminate child hunger.