Dean Forbes

Dean Forbes (born 2 May 1978) is a British business executive. Since February 2021, he serves as chief executive officer at Forterro, a software solution company which focuses on providing ERP software across Europe, based in London, England. Prior to his appointment, he was president at The Access Group responsible for people division, since May 2020. Between 2011 and 2016, Forbes was the CEO at the KDS. Forbes served at Primavera Systems as vice president for 9 years, from April 2000 until January 2009.

In early ages of his life, Forbes was a football player; he played at Crystal Palace FC which separated with him at the age of 17. He started his career in the IT industry as sales manager at Motorola in 1995. He has appeared four times consecutively on the Powerlists, an annual ranking of influential Black British people in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Forbes is chairman and co-founder of Forbes Family Group, and partner at Corten Capital.

Biography
Forbes was born on May 2, 1978, at Lewisham Hospital, and he grew up in a single-parent household in South London, England. Forbes has two young brothers, his mother was suffering from muscular dystrophy, he started to look after them at the age of 11. Forbes at early ages had aspirations to be a professional football player and signed a contract with Crystal Palace F.C., he faced injuries and the club decided to separate with him at the age of 17. He told the Business Insider, at the time of rejection, we went homeless before getting a job in a Call Centre, working for Motorola.

Career
Forbes was pursuing football career as a player until he was 17. Since July 1995, he worked as sales manager at both Motorola UK and Isis Telecommunications in England before joining Primavera Systems in April 2000. Forbes served at Primavera Systems as vice president responsible for international growth for 9 years, until the company was sold to Oracle Corporation in January 2009. After acquisition, he worked for one year at Oracle Corporation as vice president responsible worldwide sales until February 2010.

In February 2010, Forbes joined KDS, a travel and expense management software company acquired by Amex GBT since August 2016. He served as vice president responsible for commercial operations. He served until July 2011 when he was promoted to chief executive officer of the company, until December 2016. Subsequently, he was appointed chief executive officer at CoreHR, a human resources system company which was acquired later by The Access Group in May 2020.

Personal life
Forbes is married to Danielle Forbes, and the couple has three children.

Charity
Forbes founded Forbes Family Group, a charity foundation.