Sir Derek was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire and was educated at Solihull School,[2] and in 1963 he went to the University of Bristol and graduated in Economics and Accounting in 1966.

[1][4] He was also a board member of several companies including Prudential, British Land, and Coventry City Football Club.

[5] In 2002 the British Labour Government commissioned Sir Derek to chair the Review of the role and effectiveness of non-executive directors.

[1][6][7] In October 2005 he became the chairman of the Alliance & Leicester bank and worked there through difficult times, which were partly caused by the credit crunch that took effect during 2007 in Britain.

As he felt inherited wealth did more harm than good, Alan Higgs left his entire fortune to a charity to be created after his death to help deprived children from Coventry and nearby localities.