Headquarters Boston | Founded 1971 | |
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Type Wholly owned subsidiary Industry Management Consulting, Corporate Training and Development Area served North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific Key people Russell Becker, CEO
Cindy Stuckey, Managing Director, EMEA
Mike Wirth, Managing Director, North America
Shail Chotai, Global Head of Operations Services Development by Design
Leadership & Sales Performance Solutions that Drive Measureable Results at Every Level of Your Organization Parent organization Institute for International Research Profiles | ||
Oracle marketing cloud customer interview the forum corporation
The Forum Corporation is a global learning and consulting company focused on leadership development and sales performance. The company works with customers around the world and across a large variety of industries. Founded in 1971, the company established itself as a pioneer in the corporate training and education space. Forum has worked with over 480 companies, 130 of which are listed on the Fortune 500.
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Early years
Forum was founded in 1971. Five partners, several of whom had recently graduated from Harvard Business School, originally financed the startup with their American Express cards. By 1982 it was ranked 362 on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America, with 170 employees and 40 part-time instructors. As clients moved the company began conducting operations overseas in the late 1970s.
Acquisitions
On June 30, 2000, Forum accepted an offer by Pearson, a London-based media conglomerate, to purchase Forum for US$90 million (GBP 60 million) in cash. Pearson intended to merge Forum with FT Knowledge to generate sales of US$110 million in its first year. Forum Chairman and CEO John Humphrey oversaw the integration as chairman of an international advisory board while FT Knowledge CEO Pippa Wicks became the CEO of the new company. Forum executive vice president Jennifer Potter-Brotman was promoted to CEO of Forum, as Pearson wished to keep senior Forum managers and preserve brand identity. After Forum shareholders unanimously approved the purchase, and the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal on July 10, the official announcement was released August 3.
In July 2002, the Institute for International Research (IIR) expressed interest in purchasing Forum, and as FT Knowledge began consolidating Pearson decided to launch negotiations that November. A final deal was signed on January 13, 2003, selling Forum to IIR for US$30 million. IIR was purchased itself in 2005 by the British publisher and conference company Informa.
In October 2013, Providence Equity Partners acquired Forum and four sister companies from Informa, and is now part of Providence Corporate Development Holding Company's business portfolio. In 2015, Forum's parent company was renamed Twenty Eighty.
In 2015, Forum acquired Kenexa Insight from IBM This offering was a research base built over 30 years of studying high performance. This acquisition was the foundation of the Talent Analytics and Assessment solutions within the organization.
In 2016, The Forum Corporation and the leadership segment of the AchieveGlobal combined to form AchieveForum. Both Forum and AchieveGlobal have always focused on the most critical element to the success of any organization: leadership. We have a history built on gaining an understanding of what makes the best leaders successful, and then using these insights to design training and development programs that maximize performance. Great leaders can have a profound impact on the commercial performance of an organization and on the employee experience, leading to sustainable business success.
Business
Forum provides learning solutions in three main areas: leadership, sales and sales management, and Talent Analytics and Talent Assessment .
Forum has a deep library of solutions in these three areas. These solutions are research based and can be customized to the specific needs of customers.