Derek Rapp joined RiverVest as a managing director in 2019, bringing broad healthcare experience, along with strong entrepreneurial, deal-making, and strategic skills.

From 2014-2019, Derek served as president & chief executive officer of JDRF, the world’s largest non-government funder of diabetes research and a major advocacy group for the type 1 diabetes community. Derek became involved in JDRF as a volunteer a decade prior after his son’s diagnosis with type 1 diabetes.

Immediately prior to his time at JDRF, Derek led mergers and acquisitions for Monsanto Company. He came into this role after Monsanto’s acquisition of Divergence, Inc., a company for which Derek was CEO for 10 years. Divergence was a life sciences research company developing products for the control and prevention of parasitic infections. Derek began his career in mergers and acquisitions with Lazard Freres & Co. in New York.

Derek is a current member of the board of directors of Research!America and a member of the Global Mission Board of JDRF. He has served on numerous other boards, including chairing each of the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation Board of Directors, the Plant and Life Sciences Working Group in St. Louis, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Friends Board.

Derek earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. from Brown University. Derek grew up in St. Louis, MO, where he lives with his wife, Emily.  Together, they have three adult children, a son-in-law, and a granddaughter.  When not working, Derek is an enthusiastic golfer, fly fisherman, cyclist, and cook.