Our people.

Nic is the founder and CEO of Forward Partners. He has worked in venture capital in London and Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Prior to founding Forward in 2013, he was a founding Partner at leading venture capital firm Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Espirit), which went on to admit to AIM in 2016. Before entering the venture capital industry, Nic worked as a strategy consultant for Gemini Consulting and at London-based startup Operis Group plc.

Nic has led on over 100 investments and has overseen several successful exits, including, most recently, Wonderbly and Heights from the Forward portfolio. In 2021, Forward listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising £36.6m. He currently sits on the board of multiple fast-growth startups including; Robin, Makers and Koru Kids.

Outside of Forward he’s a proud husband and father of two teenage kids and a long-time season ticket holder at Chelsea Football Club. He’s developed a keen interest in mindfulness and philosophy that’s proved to be a great asset at home, at work and as a supporter of the aforementioned club.

Lloyd joined Forward from the ATI Group, a provider of legal technology, software and information services, where he held the position of Chief Financial Officer at several of its UK and Ireland businesses. Prior to joining ATI, he spent five years in audit at EY and four years in PwC’s deals team, working with a mix of private equity firms, AIM-listed businesses, banks and other private companies.

Luke joined Forward Partners from REV Venture Partners, a corporate VC, where he was responsible for deal origination, investment due diligence and portfolio reporting. He was previously a consultant with the strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman, where he worked across the retail, aviation, healthcare and FMCG sectors. Luke originally planned a career in science and he holds a PhD in biochemistry. His focus at Forward Partners is on sourcing and executing new investments.

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Chris is a successful entrepreneur and startup executive with a track record of helping companies succeed. In 2019, he co-founded Front of the Pack (FOTP), a pet wellness startup that raised a Series A at $50 million from leading institutional investors and angels. Under Chris's leadership, FOTP became one of the top pet wellness companies in the world.

Before FOTP, Chris worked as the Director of People at Paws Group, Europe's largest pet supply ecommerce business. He has also helped build and align leadership teams for some of the most exciting startups around the world, many of which have gone on to list on the NASDAQ or FTSE or become unicorns.

Chris's work in people and culture has been featured in The Times, and his playbook is used by over 40 scale-ups, including four of the top 10 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100. In addition to his professional pursuits, Chris co-founded and runs NOMFUP, a social mobility organization that is soon to become a charity.

Growth wrangler. Marketer. Customer champion.

Jared has spent his career building great customer experiences. He's started up. Sold. Built new things, including a newspaper. A robot dog. An omni-directional wheelchair. The most visible screen in London. And for a time, the world's biggest picture. Before Forward he led marketing and growth for Marketplace business Plentific, helping them to pivot, scale their business across Europe and raise a $100m round.

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Katrina started her career at KPMG before moving into venture capital five years ago, where she was responsible for supporting portfolio companies and CEOs, primarily in the consumer sector. She thrives on connecting with individuals, understanding what motivates them and supporting them with challenges and decision-making. She has a particular interest in psychology and wellbeing and is a regular runner and yogi. In her spare time she enjoys exploring new gastronomic hotspots.

As a highly experienced Talent and People leader, Rachel's background is in scaling businesses strategically in multiple geographies and coaching teams of recruiters to be their best. During her career, Rachel has worked for scale-ups with a focus on tech talent, taking a startup tech consultancy from 60 to 600 people in just over 4 years, and she has worked to bring about strategic change in larger organisations such as the Financial Times.

Her influence extends to proactively impacting culture and talent development, retention and DE&I practices, influencing senior leadership teams and challenging the way an organisation is developing.

Ben joined Forward from an independent European investment firm where he was Director of Finance. Previously he trained as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte in London working with private and publicly listed clients primarily in the Technology sector.

Ben is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI)

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Megha started her career as a Tech and Media coverage banker at Goldman Sachs in New York, which is where she says she “caught the tech bug”. She also worked as a generalist M&A banker for several years at Goldman Sachs London.

Prior to Forward she built her own startup Earthmiles, which provided a B2B2C gamified wellbeing platform to SMEs in the UK and internationally. 

Outside of Forward she has a huge passion for wellbeing and the quantified self, and spends her free time on word puzzles, pilates and reading everything she possibly can.

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Ann-Marie has almost a decade's worth of experience building and scaling startups in the UK tech industry. From luxury travel and corporate events to robotic process automation, she loves challenger brands with a killer idea. Passionate about ESG initiatives, Ann-Marie has implemented many programmes in her previous roles to support charities tackling homelessness and helping young people and women into careers within the tech sector.

At Forward, Ann-Marie is responsible for our brand and building experiences that founders love, whilst supporting the growing businesses in our portfolio via the Studio.

Esha is a Senior Investor at Forward Partners. Her focus at Forward is on executing new investments and working with the portfolio. Over the past 5 years, she has invested in and worked with European technology start-ups at the earliest stages, from idea /pre-seed to Series A. She has a particular interest in B2B SaaS. She completed her MBA at London Business School, before this she worked in India as a transactions advisor across financial services and energy sectors.

John has had a career in finance for nearly thirty years, holding a variety of positions from management accounting through to financial and data analysis. Latterly, John has held senior analytical roles in the Aeronautical and Real Estate sectors, concentrating on streamlining of financial reporting and processes, as well as managing data manipulation and migrations.

A proud father of 3 girls, John loves nothing more than getting out on his bike and hitting the trails (as well as a few country pubs en route!).

Mo works as a Culture Manager and EA to Nic Brisbourne. Mo is passionate about creating a fun and inclusive working culture, creating events and supporting the team at Forward. She joins us from the brands Ecover and Method, and has previously worked in the arts and events industry. At Ecover and Method, she supported the leadership team, managed the office and created events.

Shei started her career in EY Philippines, and then moved to the EY office in London, following a 6-month secondment in EY Singapore. After a combined period of 11 years working as an external auditor for EY, Shei now joins Forward. She works primarily on financial statements and internal controls audits of hedge fund and private equity funds and managers, and AIM-listed brokers. 

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Gray has spent the last 5 years as an Assistant Finance Manager for Global Coal, which is a global online trading platform for physical coal. Gray will be a supporting the preparation of the monthly management accounts, as well as the general day-to-day finance operations. He is excited to be part of a culture which cares for their investments and supports them in solving the world's problems.