Forbs West is a creative and analytical go-getter who got his start in the music industry taking an Intro to Music Business course at Tulane University taught by Grammy Award Winning Producer Chris Finney. During his undergraduate career at Tulane, Forbs garnered 7 internships in the industry including at Live Nation, TikTok, SiriusXM, Red Light Management, Irwin Entertainment (under NBC—Tonight Show with Lilly Singh), Warner Music (Atlantic Records), and WVUE Fox 8.
He graduated in 2020 with a self-designed double major in Mathematics and Music Business, which required petitioning the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts three times. Upon graduating, he landed a job at William Morris Endeavor in the Music Touring department working under Ashley Gonzeles (agent for Shakira, Daddy Yankee, Empress Of, HIRIE, etc.) before transitioning to SiriusXM, where he programmed content for The Music Business Channels. Forbs then moved to Pandora under SiriusXM, curating content in the EDM, Gospel, and Kids and Family genres. His interest in curation stemmed from leadership positions at college radio station WTUL, where he served as Sponsorships and Underwritings Director, Promotions Director, and On-Air Host for the Friday Jazz Show (DJ WestCoast Dawg).
Presently, Forbs is the curation lead for the Kids and Family genre for Pandora as well as Mixtapes (playlists for brand partnerships). He has led content strategy from developing Pandora’s Top 15 EDM gaming station, Power On: Gaming Music, to an education suite titled Study Jams: Elementary, Middle and High School, plus stations including PE Pump, Back to School Kids, 2000s Disney Nostalgic Hits, and The Animal Playground.
As a side hustle, he manages three artists including 2x Grammy Nominated fiddle player and violinist Lily Honigberg (Shaboozey, Dasha, Myles Smith, Adrien Nunez, Ava Max), country pop singer/songwriter Sami Siteman in Los Angeles, and Grammy nominated mixing/mastering engineer Shane Patterson.
Forbs has amassed more than 11K followers on LinkedIn and has been featured in Yellowbrick’s 40 Under 40, VoyageLA, Bold Journey, and ShoutoutLA. He has been a panelist for the Tulane Alumni Association and the Tulane Campus Programming Board and presently sits on the advisory council for the Metronome in New Orleans.
On top of consulting and managing entertainment talent, Forbs recently obtained his MBA from NYU Stern with a triple specialization in Finance, Strategy, and Entertainment, Media, and Technology.