Derek Alexander was brought up in Neilston, East Renfrewshire. He qualified from University of Edinburgh with an MA Honours degree in Archaeology and then an MPhil study on the 'Later prehistoric and proto-historic settlement of west central Scotland'. He went on to work for the Centre for Field Archaeology at the University from 1991 to 2000, and then took up current post with the National Trust for Scotland. He is a long standing member of the Renfrewshire Local History Forum Archaeology Section.