MEET P. DIDDY'S CFO
By Julia Hanna

When Derek Ferguson joined the company of hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, he had to figure out new grooves for a business that relied on its music label.

Bible and notepad at his side, Derek T. Ferguson (HBS MBA '90) could be mistaken for a minister by fellow commuters on the train from Connecticut to Manhattan. Yet his calling is not to the pulpit, but to the midtown headquarters of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group, a privately held enterprise with 2002 revenues of $300 million.

As Bad Boy's CFO, Ferguson oversees a multifaceted hip-hop empire founded in 1993 by Chairman and CEO Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, a Grammy Award-winning producer and recording artist in his own right. Sometimes criticized for its associations with misogyny and violence (P. Diddy has seen the inside of the courtroom more than once), hip-hop is as much a lifestyle as a musical genre. Yet the company's spare, functional Times Square offices don't suggest any of these bad boy qualities—and neither does the genial, relaxed Ferguson, who is as passionate about the Bible study he leads at work as he is discussing new ways to "monetize" music in a notoriously difficult market.

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