Ms. Forrest founded Bokeh Capital Partners LLC assuming the role of Chief Investment Officer. Her unique perspective comes from her wide range of skills developed over the span of two successful careers, finance and software engineering.
The Bokeh Management Team brings over 100 years of combined experience in investing, banking operations, financial management, operations, and technology solutions. The result is a team that has vast professional and industry experience and more importantly, has successfully managed through many business cycles.
Kimberly Forrest
Founder and Chief Investment Officer
She began her career in finance as a Senior Equity Research Analyst, Software, at Parker/Hunter. While there, Ms. Forrest was ranked in the top 25% of the 150 analysts covering software and was recognized in 2002 as the #2 Software Analyst according to The Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street ranking.
In 2005, Ms. Forrest moved into institutional-style portfolio management at Fort Pitt Capital Group. During her time there, firm assets grew from $650mm to approximately $2.6B, with Ms. Forrest having sole buy/sell responsibilities for $500mm of the individual securities portfolio $1.6B of assets under management.Â
Ms. Forrest spent the first 13 years in her professional life as a Project Manager / Software Engineer at several software engineering firms that specialized in math–centric artificial intelligence, neural networking, and CADD applications.
Additionally, Ms. Forrest was an adjunct professor in 2017-2018 at the University of Pittsburgh, teaching an undergraduate options and futures class.
Kim is a well-respected market commentator, regularly appearing on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business News and Yahoo Finance and is often quoted in the financial press.
Ms. Forrest received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Science (dual major: Computer Science and Math), also from the University of Pittsburgh.
She currently holds her Series 65 Investment Advisor Representative license.
William Forrest
Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Forrest is Chief Operating Officer and a founder of Bokeh Capital Partners LLC. He brings over 30 years of technology based management and operations expertise to the company.
Mr. Forrest was the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of two technology startup companies – Motiledge Corporation, a provider of industry specific mobile computing solutions for high profile / high liability industries; and, Good OTTO LLC, a provider of end-to-end turnkey solutions to manage customer online training and testing initiatives.
Prior to founding two technology companies, Mr. Forrest was a Project and Product Manager in the Mobility Software Division at Symbol Technologies Inc. (later acquired by Motorola). During his time there as Product Manager, Mr. Forrest managed a family of mobile computing products including a mobile device management system; a U.S. certified FIPS 140-2 compliant wireless VPN; and a product for persistent connectivity management for mobile computing devices.
Mr. Forrest also held management positions at two Pittsburgh architectural and engineering firms: Eichleay Engineers Inc, and Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates. His duties at these organizations included IT system responsibilities, ISO 9001 quality control auditor, data translation, including Computer Aided Design (CAD) and their associated relational databases.
Given his entrepreneurial experience, Mr. Forrest was asked to serve as a mentor and consultant to startup companies and spin-out companies at the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute.
Mr. Forrest received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh and is also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence Program.
William Johns
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Johns had a 35-year career in banking that was spent primarily at PNC Bank. He has returned from early retirement to serve as the Chief Financial Officer at Bokeh Capital Partners LLC.
Mr. Johns served many roles within PNC including these positions: SVP, Management Accounting, PNC Financial Corp; Controller, Pittsburgh National Bank; Controller, Chief Accounting Officer, PNC Financial Corp; Chief Financial Officer, PNC Corporate Bank; Chief Financial Officer, PNC Capital Markets; Controller, Provident National Bank, Philadelphia, PA (PNC predecessor).
To serve in the CFO, PNC Capital Markets role, Mr. Johns acquired a Series 27 broker/dealer license (Financial/Operation Principal).
Mr. Johns has also served on the following boards: PNC Leasing Board, PNC Venture Capital Board, PNC Pension and Profit-Sharing Committee, Capital Expenditures Committee, Chairman.
During the first year of his retirement Mr. Johns was requested to assume the role of interim Chief Financial Officer for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, the second largest school system in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Johns has also served as Treasurer, Board and Executive Committee member of the Western PA. Humane Society and the Hill House Association. For ten years, he was also a member of the Big 33 Scholarship Committee.
Mr. Johns received a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Finance from Drexel University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University.