Robert Forbes, Jr.

Founder and Director of Design Within Reach, Rob Forbes puts it simply: "We market products from designers to design savvy clients and we honor the values of the design community." DWR epitomizes new era retailing, from it's cool brick and mortar stores to a very savvy retail website and well over 500,000 catalog readers a month. Rob and his team know something about design—and motivating the public to buy it. Also critical to this success—using technology to speed up the typically slow sales cycle… “Our goal is simply to accelerate the way that design gets to the public and to take advantage of the most current technology in this process.”

Rob has 20 years of experience in design, executive level marketing, and general management for high growth upscale retailers in the U.S. and abroad. Before founding DWR, he was VP of Business Development at Smith & Hawken with full P & L responsibility for its outdoor contract furniture business line. Rob developed The Nature Company's catalog business and pioneered developments in electronic media, including interactive TV, CD-ROM and Internet technologies. He established Selfridges of London's startup catalog division, and also served as Director of Inventory Management for Williams-Sonoma. A nationally acclaimed ceramic designer, Rob received an MFA from the State University in New York and an MBA from Stanford University