Dervan’s light-bulb moment: “I wanted to take my career to another level”

Dervan Alleyne CMgr MCMI didn’t go through school wishing he could sell light bulbs. “But it’s an industry that is unbelievable to be a part of once you’re in it,” he says. “You understand what’s going on.”

Dervan is now director of public and sport lighting solutions across the UK and Ireland for Signify. But before working in lighting, he was selling insurance. 

“Insurance was the first time that I had a stable job after A-levels,” he says. He worked his way up to branch manager and enjoyed the management side, but he wanted to take it to “another level”.

Just one of those days

“It was a chance moment in my career where I took a different direction,” says Dervan. “It was just one of those days when a recruiter rang at the right time, on the right day, and said they had an opportunity.”

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He started a job in sales for a company called Osram, at the time one of the leading lighting manufacturers in the world. After some success at Osram, he moved across to another major lighting manufacturer, Philips Lighting, which is now Signify.

Dervan’s career has involved working with Premier League football clubs and doing tunnel and street lighting for local authorities. “I’m right at the cutting edge of that innovation,” he says. “As a supplier of a product that is everywhere and impacts everyone – all day, every day – it’s quite powerful.” 

Dervan says his move to Philips was pivotal. It opened up the opportunity to study for a degree and gain Chartered Manager status, which he achieved in September 2023. He hit a point in his career where, while he was successful, he didn’t feel he had that stamp to prove it. Philips offered to put him through a degree apprenticeship in Business Management at De Montfort University. 

“It was fantastic,” he says. “And as part of that programme, they had Chartered Manager accreditation run concurrently with it.”

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Dervan didn’t go in with the expectation of becoming a Chartered Manager; he just expected to get a degree. As he went through the process, however, he realised that Chartered Manager status was the “stamp” he’d been looking for to prove his management credentials. It was the “icing on the cake” on top of the degree.