WEST DES MOINES, Iowa – Oct. 16, 2026 – Trility Consulting founder Matthew D. Edwards will step down as CEO on Jan. 18, 2027, as the firm marks its 10th anniversary. As part of a long-planned succession, Brody Deren, Trility's Chief Strategy Officer, will become CEO the same day.
Edwards will remain actively engaged with Trility as an adviser. Co-founder Brenton Rothchild, Trility's Chief Information Officer, will be promoted to Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Edwards founded Trility on Jan. 17, 2017, and has led it as CEO through its first decade. Under his leadership, the West Des Moines-based firm has completed nearly 300 projects for 57 clients across 14 industries in the U.S. and abroad. A cleared organization, Trility also supports clients with demanding security and compliance requirements. In 2024, the Technology Association of Iowa named Trility the IT Service Provider Technology Company of the Year at its Prometheus Awards. This year, the firm is a finalist in that category for the fourth time. Its culture has earned recognition too: three years in a row, Trility has been certified as a Great Place to Work®.
Trility team members celebrate being named IT Service Provider Technology Company of the Year at the Technology Association of Iowa’s 2024 Prometheus Awards.
Trility employees celebrate the firm’s Great Place to Work® certification at Fall Fest 2025, an all-team gathering.
Edwards has long believed in leadership term limits, so fresh perspectives and fresh energy can carry an organization forward. He began planning this transition over a year ago to ensure a deliberate, orderly handoff.
"When I started Trility, I believed no organization should depend on any one person, including its founder," Edwards said. "Leaders should serve a season and then make room for someone new. Ten years is the right time, and I trust Brody completely to take the helm."
Edwards received the Department of Defense’s Patriot Award in 2025 for building a company that supports active duty military members while also working at Trility.
From left, ESGR Iowa Chair Rebecca Coady, Matthew D. Edwards and Ashley Gregory at the Patriot Award ceremony at Trility’s headquarters.
After the transition, he will spend more time with his family, on their all-natural Iowa farm and on Teach People, the Zimbabwe nonprofit he runs with his wife, Melanie.
Deren has led Trility’s go-to-market strategy for nearly seven years, overseeing sales, marketing and partnerships. He guided the firm’s evolution into end-to-end AI solutions consulting, added its Data Intelligence practice and launched a channel partnership program, including the firm’s Microsoft partnership, which now holds Microsoft Fabric Featured Partner status and the Microsoft Solutions Partner designation for Data & AI. He also introduced packaged service offerings, such as the Fabric Navigator Workshop Series and the AI-Assisted Engineering Diagnostic. During his tenure, Trility was twice named to the Inc. 5000.
From left, Chief Strategy Officer Brody Deren, founder and CEO Matthew D. Edwards and CIO Brenton Rothchild celebrate Trility Consulting’s 2021 Inc. 5000 recognition at the company’s in-person “shindig” that year.
As an entrepreneur who previously started, built, and sold his own business, Deren has spent his career in technology services. He is a graduate of Creighton University, where he was a three-year starter and Academic All-American on the men’s basketball team.
"Brody has a brilliant business mind and a relentless, competitive drive, but my favorite thing about him is that he is an honest, honorable man," Edwards said. "His yes is yes, and his no is no. He embodies our core values, and he knows our people, our culture and our clients inside and out."
Rothchild, one of 13 co-founders Edwards recruited to launch Trility in 2017, will add the role of Chief Operating Officer following the transition, overseeing delivery operations and internal technology. The expanded role reflects the growing demands of security, artificial intelligence, tooling and supporting a remote workforce.
“In 2017, Matthew convinced 13 of us to bet on his vision for Trility, and for 10 years he has led it with conviction,” Rothchild said. “He built a culture where people do the best work of their careers. Stepping aside on his own terms, exactly as he said he would, is one more example of that leadership. Brody and I are ready to carry it forward.”
For Trility's clients and partners, day-to-day work will not change. Deren will lead alongside Rothchild and Trility's leadership team, and Edwards will stay engaged as an adviser. The leaders guiding the transition have completed change management training to ensure seamless handoffs and continuity.
"Matthew built Trility on a simple promise: give our word, keep our word, and deliver with excellence," Deren said. "That promise is why clients trust us with their highest-consequence problems. My job is to keep it at the center of everything we do as we help them put data, cloud and AI to work."
Trility is a business-driven, integrated AI solutions consulting firm that helps mid-market to enterprise-sized companies define, design, and deliver end-to-end technology solutions that solve high-consequence problems.
Media contact: marketing@trility.io
