History of Charles E. Thompson
Charles (Chuck) Edward Thompson was born an only-child to a single mother on September 19, 1929 in Wetumpka, Alabama. After graduating in June, 1947 from Athens High School in Athens, Louisiana, Chuck served in the United States Air Force from July, 1947 through May, 1950.
After the Air Force, Chuck and his family lived in Concord, CA where he worked in auto sales. In 1965, Chuck received the opportunity to purchase a Chevrolet dealership in Patterson and he decided to make the leap and become an entrepreneur. He moved his family to Patterson and from 1965 until his retirement in 2008, Chuck built Thompson Chevrolet into a well-respected local business that still exists today.
Until his passing in 2013, Chuck Thompson truly lived the American dream. He was born with nothing to his name and through hard work, entrepreneurial spirit and caring for his employees and community, he built a very successful business and a good life for he and his family.
Derek Draper
Born and raised in Patterson, CA, Derek attended Central Catholic High School and then Dartmouth College. Post-college, Derek started his career in the financial service industry working for Fisher Investments in Woodside, CA.
After 4.5 years at Fisher Investments, Derek felt the desire to return to his roots and become an entrepreneur. He started an internet business which ultimately failed but through that process he connected with a couple other entrepreneurs that were starting a social media company (Wildfire) in 2009 and joined them, running Sales.
Wildfire turned out to be a crazy ride and after growing the business from zero to $50 million in revenue in 3 years, Wildfire was acquired by Google for over $400 million. Derek worked at Google on the self-driving car project until recently when he started his own company called Pattern. He continues to carry the entrepreneurial flame and wants to do everything possible to encourage students in the community of Patterson to explore entrepreneurship.