Darek DeFreece (‘93) is the founder of the Berkeley Space Center. He joined UC Berkeley in 2018, focusing on strategic initiatives for the campus. He has been an attorney and capital markets executive for more than 20 years at various global financial and investment management firms. He separately advises a number of early stage companies and venture capital. He received his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and his juris doctorate from Boston College Law School.

Mr. DeFreece has served on the boards of numerous educational and non-profit organizations, including as a regent of the University of California, the president of the Cal Alumni Association, advisor to the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, and trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation. He is a Berkeley Fellow. Currently, he is a member of the finance committee for the Trevor Project, a national non-profit focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth and the chair of the board for the Grammy award-winning Pacific Boychoir Academy in Oakland, California. He lives in Oakland with his husband Alan and their two children, Jacob and Riley.