Derrick R. Wood is an entrepreneur, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, author, leadership speaker, and Mayor of Dumfries, Virginia. His work sits at the intersection of leadership, entrepreneurship, economic mobility, and community transformation.

Wood’s journey into public leadership began outside traditional politics. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, he became an entrepreneur and founded Dyvine Barbecue in 2011. In 2012, he entered public service as a write-in candidate for Dumfries Town Council and won, beginning a leadership journey that would eventually lead to his election as Mayor in 2018.

Since then, Dumfries has experienced significant financial and economic growth. The Town’s General Fund has grown from approximately $4.8 million in FY2018 to more than $12.1 million in FY2026—an increase of more than 150%. Dumfries’ assessed property value has grown from approximately $485 million to more than $1 billion, while major economic-development projects have helped create approximately 700 new jobs.

During Wood’s tenure, Dumfries also earned its first-ever municipal bond ratings—AA- from S&P and Aa3 from Moody’s—and its first competitive bond sale generated approximately $1.7 million in financing savings. The Town has also secured millions of dollars in grants, appropriations, and outside investment to advance infrastructure and community priorities.

But Wood believes economic development should be measured by more than buildings, budgets, and property values. The people who were there before the growth arrived should have an opportunity to grow with it—through higher incomes, entrepreneurship, ownership, and economic mobility.

Wood is the creator of the Mango Tree Leadership Framework, his signature approach to transformational leadership. The framework challenges leaders to develop deep roots, strong character, produce meaningful results, create opportunities for others, and ultimately help other people grow. For Wood, one of the highest measures of leadership is whether followers become leaders—and whether those leaders become change agents in their own communities.

That framework supports his broader Overlooked to Unforgettable philosophy: the belief that being overlooked can be where a person, business, or community starts, but it does not have to be where they finish.

Through DWood University, Wood is turning lessons from military service, entrepreneurship, and public leadership into practical tools designed to develop people who can lead, create opportunity, and build something that lasts.

His mission is not simply to create more followers. It is to grow more leaders.