Cody Coleman is a Florida native born in Avon Park who began his journey in the handcrafted soap industry in 2017 when he joined Essential Depot and subsequently became a proud member of the Greener Life Team. Having little knowledge in this line of work with no real understanding of the chemicals and natural products that are used in handcrafted soap making, he was given the opportunity to work part time in the development, beta testing, and packaging of the various kits and products available at EssentialDepot.com. Working closely with the Team of developers at Essential Depot, he gained knowledge of this complex industry on how to carefully craft many different products including handcrafted soap, lotion bars, bath bombs, topical balm products, liquid soap, bar soap, and cleaning solutions. This training provided Cody with the opportunity and privilege to travel all over the eastern side of the U.S. attending conferences and trade shows in numerous different states and meeting many wonderful people.
Jose Cruz has been a part of the Essential Depot Team since 2020. Jose is an integral member of the Warehouse Production Team. His work in the warehouse involved: chemical storage, repacking receiving, distribution, repacking, shipping, customer service. This work has provided Jose with a well-rounded understanding of the importance of receiving, shipping, safe handling, packaging material, safety regulations, GMP, and transportation requirements. Jose became a member of Essential Depot’s trade shows and events team providing him with first-hand knowledge of the soaping industry and its community, and Jose looks forward to learning more at the Orlando Conference.
DEREK G. HODGES, B.Sc.
Essential Depot Company Owner and Electrical Engineer
Derek graduated from the University of Salford in Manchester, England receiving a B.Sc. Degree in Electronic Computer Systems.
Derek worked for IBM for 13 years in the research and development labs in a software engineering and project management role; largely based in the USA interfacing with software publishers promoting IBM PC products under development. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get IBM to invest in Autodesk and in Mathematica when each company had less than 20 Employees. That unsuccessful attempt caused Derek to join Mathematica, Inc. as VP of Sales and Marketing in 1990. Subsequently becoming President and CEO, Derek learned valuable business and personal lessons as the company grew and tripled in workforce. In 1994, and 5 attorneys later, Derek decided to close the Company and then subsequently dated one of the attorneys his now wife Kimberlee.
From 1994 to 2009 Derek enabled thousands of companies, in Florida and throughout the world, to obtain free web pages on his “Fox Business Network” portal system. In 2009 Derek started Essential Depot. As the years passed, with the help of his wife Kimberlee, they have built a Company that has helped 100,000+ businesses (mainly women owned) make a rewarding living from handcrafted Greener Life Products (see GreenerLifeClub.com). Traveling the world, they bring customers the best Greener Life Ingredients.
KIMBERLEE A. HODGES, J.D.
A practicing attorney since 1989, mainly in the areas of Criminal and Family law. After representing Derek in divorce proceedings from his 2nd wife in 1994 and subsequently marrying him in 2002, Derek began multiple ventures, one was Essential Depot in 2009. As Essential Depot grew, Kim’s assistance was needed. In approximately 2012 her legal areas of practice changed to meet the demands of Essential Depot (running the warehouses which included travel to source/verify product), Kim had to cease representing clients in trials and hearings due to her inability to regularly attend court hearings and trials. Being fired many times by Derek and Kim having quit Essential Depot just as many times (understood by those who know us); Derek finally determined he had no choice but to rehire Kim to run operations (or be subject to the daily bombardment of shopping deliveries). Those responsibilities cascaded Kim into an entirely new area of legal knowledge for Essential Depot and it’s industry which she willingly shares with customers.