Dean Anthony Edward Forbes (born 18 October 1978) is a

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business executive. Since February 2021, he has served as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Forterro, a software company based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. Prior to his appointment, he held executive positions at

The Access Group The Access Group is a business software company headquartered in Loughborough, England. It was founded in 1991, and currently has more than 7,500 employees. It provides business management software to over 100,000 organisations across the UK, Ir ...

, integrated travel company KDS, human resources company CoreHR,

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

, and

Primavera Systems Primavera Systems, Inc was a private company providing Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software to help project-intensive organizations identify, prioritize, and select project investments and plan, manage, and control projects and project p ...

. Forbes was raised in a single-parent household in an estate in

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

, and was made homeless twice as a teenager. In his early life, Forbes played for

Crystal Palace FC Crystal Palace Football Club, commonly referred to as Crystal Palace or simply Palace, is a professional Association football, football club based in Selhurst, South London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the top-tier of Engl ...

, but was released at the age of 17. He started his career at a call centre working for

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

in 1995. Five years later, Forbes was appointed vice president of

, and became very wealthy following the acquisition of Primavera by

in 2009. He has since occupied executive positions elsewhere, and founded the charitable Forbes Family Group. Forbes appeared four times consecutively on the

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, an annual ranking of influential

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people, from 2021 to 2024. In the 2025 list, Forbes was rated as the most influential Black British person in the

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by the Powerlist for the first time.

Biography

Early life

Dean Anthony Edward Forbes was born on 18 October 1978, at Lewisham Hospital, and grew up in a single-parent household under the care of his mother in

. His father is Jamaican and he has two young brothers, but his Guyanese mother suffered from

muscular dystrophy Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...

. As a result, Dean started to look after his younger brothers at the age of 11. Despite these obstacles to academic success, and investing time in training to become a professional footballer, Forbes still passed 10 GCSEs at School. Forbes at an early age had aspirations to be a professional football player and signed a contract with the academy at

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

. However, he faced injuries, and the club decided to release him at the age of 17. He told ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

'' that he became homeless following his release from Crystal Palace. At this time, he was in £88,000 of debt after borrowing money to maintain the appearance of a glamorous lifestyle to friends including

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for TNT Sports. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and ...

and other wealthy football players. He then started a job with

working in a call centre, in part to clear this debt.

Career

From July 1995, Forbes worked as a sales manager at

. Following this, he joined Isis Telecommunications before joining

in April 2000. Forbes served as vice president responsible for international growth at Primavera for nine years, until the company was sold to

in January 2009. After acquisition, he worked for one year at Oracle as vice president responsible for worldwide sales until February 2010. In February 2010, Forbes joined KDS, a travel and expense management software company. He served as vice president responsible for commercial operations until July 2011, when he was promoted to

of the company. The company was acquired by Amex GBT in August 2016, but Forbes remained CEO of KDS as a subsidiary until December 2016. Subsequently, he was appointed chief executive officer at CoreHR, a human resources system company. CoreHR was acquired by

in May 2020. Forbes was president at

responsible for people division from May 2020 to February 2021, and was recruited and mentored by Chris Bayne, CEO of The Access Group. In February 2021, Forbes joined Forterro, a Swedish software firm, where he currently serves as CEO and has an equity stake. the company focuses on providing

ERP software Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software—typically a suit ...

across Europe, and is based in

. As of 2022, Forbes was also a partner at Corten Capital. Forbes appeared four times consecutively on the

, an annual ranking of influential

people, in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2025, Forbes topped the list for the first time. Subsequently, he was invited to

Downing Street Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whiteh ...

to meet with the

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...

to discuss the UK economy.

Personal life

Forbes is married to Danielle Forbes, and the couple have three children. One of their daughters had

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

at the age of two, but made a full recovery, leading to Dean's interest in the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust. Forbes is close friends with both

and

Idris Elba Idrissa Akuna Elba Order of the British Empire, OBE ( ; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor and musician. He has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards. He w ...

Charity

Forbes founded Forbes Family Group, a charity foundation. Among other achievements, in September 2024 at a gala, the group raised £400,000 for the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust in one night.

References