Forge Bolsters Roster with Strategic Hires to Deliver Greater Value to Private Company Partners, Institutional Investors

December 21, 2023 at 08:30 AM EST

Forge Global Holdings, Inc. (“Forge”) (NYSE: FRGE), a leading provider of marketplace infrastructure, data services and technology solutions for private market participants, today announces the addition of two industry veterans to its team: Eric Thomassian, Head of Private Company Relations, and Jay Hinton, Head of Product.

“Forge has made significant progress this year in upleveling our talent through strategic hiring,” said Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge. “With the addition of Eric and Jay, Forge is expanding on our commitment to delivering more value for our private company partners, helping them meet critical business needs, and accelerating the solutions we bring to market to unlock access and transparency for institutional investors, private companies and all market participants.”

Eric Thomassian, Head of Private Company Relations

Eric Thomassian, formerly the Global Head of Private Markets at EquityZen, is spearheading private company relationships at Forge. Eric is leading the education, development and implementation of liquidity solutions for Forge’s private company clients, ensuring connectivity across Forge’s business lines. Previously, Eric spent a decade with Goldman Sachs & Co., in roles spanning the investment management and securities divisions and has over fifteen years of experience in capital markets bringing a wealth of expertise to Forge and its private company partners. Building on his track record of successful go-to-market strategies, bespoke issuer discussions and strong network relationships, Eric will drive increased value and innovation across Forge’s platform. In addition to his role at Forge, Eric serves as an Advisor to Beliade, an early-stage consumer venture fund.

Jay Hinton, Head of Product

Jay Hinton, a product management executive with nearly two decades of experience in the fintech, institutional asset and wealth management sectors, is serving as Head of Product, with goals of accelerating Forge’s product development across the business. In his previous position as Head of Product at 55IP, a fintech company under JP Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, Hinton successfully grew the product team supporting a tax-smart investor strategy engine with over $18 billion of assets on platform. Prior to JPM, Jay was a trader, a founder and a product leader across order management, execution management, high frequency trading, algorithmic trading, automated trading solution, TCA equities, futures, options and FX spaces. With a track record of building and managing high-performing teams, Jay is known for delivering innovative and user-focused solutions in regulatory environments, balancing customer needs with organizational goals.

About Forge

Forge is a leading provider of marketplace infrastructure, data services and technology solutions for private market participants. Forge Securities is a registered broker-dealer and a Member of FINRA that operates an alternative trading system.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” which generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “could,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “target,” “goal,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “forecast,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict, indicate or relate to future events or trends or Forge’s future financial or operating performance, or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Forge’s beliefs regarding future opportunities for Forge to expand its business. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, while considered reasonable by Forge and its management, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described in Forge’s documents filed, or to be filed, with the SEC, including in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 7, 2023. There may be additional risks that Forge presently does not know of or that it currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Forge’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Forge anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its assessments to change. However, while Forge may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Forge specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Forge’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.