The Right Fit: Meet COO Derek Grundy TEE’24

Two decades before Derek Grundy TEE’24 became COO of HuaLi Industrial Group’s Nike Division, leading a cross-functional organization of more than 50,000 employees across five factory locations in Vietnam, he was working out of a tiny, shared apartment in Beverly, Massachusetts. His job at AQx Sports, an early-stage maker of aquatic training shoes, was entirely commission based.

“I had no income for about six months,” says Grundy, crediting his then girlfriend, now wife, for supporting the couple through her job as a nurse. “I was on the phone every day, cold-calling NBA teams and NFL trainers, trying to figure out ways to promote the product.”

Eventually, a few NFL teams bought in. Later, ESPN The Magazine ran a feature about the shoe and decorated long-distance runner Alan Webb became an enthusiastic supporter. With the fledging company starting to gain traction, Grundy moved to Oregon to set up AQx’s first official office, doing everything from packing shoes to overseeing production to working with investors.

“It wasn’t glamorous, but it was the kind of bottom-up, broad-based learning experience that is invaluable for someone early in their career,” says Grundy about his time with AQx.

From Hustle to Leadership

His evolution from startup hustler to global footwear executive only strengthened Grundy’s belief that the most effective leaders never stop learning, no matter how far they have come. As his responsibilities have expanded, so has the importance of knowing which problems require his attention, which opportunities support the organization’s strategy, and how to create lasting change at scale.

“As you grow in your career, leadership becomes way less about the technical aspects of the job—it’s all people related.”

“As you grow in your career, leadership becomes way less about the technical aspects of the job—it’s all people related,” says Grundy. “When you’re overseeing factories with 20,000 employees, it's like managing a small town or city.”

Addressing these challenges led Grundy to Tuck Executive Education’s Leadership and Strategic Impact program in 2024. One of its most useful lessons was the discipline to resist quick fixes. At HuaLi, when a quality issue emerges, teams conduct a Root Cause Analysis using the “Five Whys,” a framework that encourages them to keep probing until they understand the underlying system failure rather than simply addressing a surface-level mistake.

Another insight came from Tuck professor Paul Argenti’s adage that “everything is stuff,” which underscores the importance of separating what is merely demanding attention from what is genuinely important. For Grundy, that means evaluating new ideas against HuaLi’s three strategic priorities: becoming more responsive, more resilient, and more responsible.

“If the idea isn’t about making us faster to the market, helping us adapt to risk, or improving the lives of our people and planet, it’s probably something I should pass on,” he says.

Finding His Footing

That combination of discipline and adaptability has roots in Grundy’s earliest experiences. Raised in Smithfield, Rhode Island, in a working-class family, he grew up immersed in sports. His father, Tom, was a plumber, accomplished marathon runner, and local track and cross-country coach.

Grundy played basketball for two years at Endicott College before a knee injury ended his playing career. After earning a degree in sport management, he enrolled in Endicott’s one-year MBA program, coached at a nearby prep school, and worked for Hoop Mountain, which organized basketball camps, clinics, and showcase events.

Although he enjoyed coaching, Grundy was increasingly drawn to the career his uncle Dan had built as an early Nike employee whose work eventually took him overseas to Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand to help manage Nike’s production process.

“If an athletic playing career was off the table, the opportunity to travel and work on footwear for the best athletes in the world was pretty enticing,” says Grundy.

AQx Sports provided his first opening. His success there then caught the attention of Reebok where he spent more than a decade, eventually leading the company’s first co-located product marketing, design, development, and costing operation in Asia.

Leading by Giving Back

Throughout his career journey, Grundy has relied on the influence of several key mentors going back to his days running basketball camps for Hoop Mountain. He now tries to pay that support forward as a longtime mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters and by advising future business leaders. One piece of advice he frequently offers is to focus on adding value in your current role rather than looking ahead to the next opportunity.

"Be a giver, not a taker. Opportunities will come your way simply because of what you've done for other people and how you treated them.”

"Be a giver, not a taker,” Grundy says. “Opportunities will come your way simply because of what you've done for other people and how you treated them.”

Following his experience in Leadership and Strategic Impact, Grundy enrolled in another Tuck Executive Education program, Professor Adam Kleinbaum’s Tuck Executive Sprint: Leading Organizational Change. Across two, three-hour sessions, Grundy filled a notebook with insights about how to transform ingrained processes to elevate business performance.

“If you want to create an exceptional organization focused on continuous improvement, that example has to come from the top,” he says. “I’ve always felt that learning needs to be a consistent part of the leadership journey.”