this tiktok video went viral earlier in the year — it's dean forbes — boss of software firm forterro he is pretty happy, as you can see. what made it special for many people was the back—story. dean grew up on a council estate in south east london and was made homele55 twice. he's just made the top of the 2025 power list of influential black british people. theo legggett has been talking to dean about what it took to get there. i think my background, which for sure is not typical of a person in my role or in my situation, is actually the most helpful thing to me in my career. and i've said this, you know, many, many, many times. number one, in the transformation or turnaround environment, among many things that you need i5 resilience, right? becau5e especially at the beginning, you're having more bad days than you're having good days. so i've been kind of built in an environment, i grew up in an environment where resilience was was a survival mechanism. it wasn't about developing your career or making money. it was about staying alive. that's why you needed to be resilient. so my res

but today, he is chief executive of the swedish software firm forterro, and this year was placed topheo leggett has more on how he got there. you need resilience. especially at the beginning. you are having more bad days and good days at the beginning so i have been in an environment, i grew up in an environment where resilience was a survival mechanism. it wasn't about developing your career or making money, it was about surviving so you had to be resilient. my resilience is built on a different factory than most of my counterparts. as you were on your way up, did you find your background lead people to take you less seriously estimate i can ——i can remember lots of times in my career where i was sat in a meeting or a room where the time nor the treatment towards me didn't seem consistent with what i had observed, my peers, my colleagues get, sometimes there was an element of a lack of professionalism around it but i never contribute that to anything around race or lack of education. but primarily race. because racism is such an abhorrent thing that i never want to attribute that to

this tiktok video went viral earlier in the year — it's dean forbes — boss of software firm forterro many people was the back—story. dean grew up in social housing in london and was made homeless twice. he's just made the top of the 2025 power list of influential black british people. theo legggett has been talking to dean about what it took to get there. i think my background, which for sure is not typical of a person in my role or in my situation, is actually the most helpful thing to me in my career. and i've said this, you know, many, many, many times. number one, in the transformational turnaround environment, among many things that you need is resilience, because especially at the beginning, you're having more bad days than you're having good days. so i've been kind of built in an environment, i grew up in an environment, where resilience was a survival mechanism. it wasn't about developing your career or making money. it was about staying alive. that's why you needed to be resilient. so my resilience is built in a very different kind of factory than most of my counterparts. so