Inspirational Woman: Lindsay Forster | CEO, Shepper

Lindsay joined Shepper as CEO in 2020 following over 20 years’ experience in the financial sector and has since driven a period of rapid growth, making Shepper one of the fastest-growing apps in the UK.

Forster has worked alongside a number of companies to produce creative and impactful analysis and strategy to drive actionable decision-making and results.

Previous to her role at Shepper, Lindsay spent more than five years as CMO and Director of Global Partnerships at Aviva.  Prior to that, Forster held leadership positions including Chief Marketing Officer at Friends Life and Towergate Insurance, and Marketing Director for both the Insurance and Commercial Banking divisions of Lloyds Banking Group.

Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role

I’m the CEO of Shepper – a company that enables business clients to access hyper-local community members to collect and share insight that powers business decisions. I’m a marketer who is passionate about driving positive customer change. The opportunity is vast at Shepper, which is why we’re all here.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career?

Not really. I was lucky enough to discover a passion that I was good at early in my career, fuelled by a boss who was passionate about my development and future, and not how I could help him and his career.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

Many, and I’m not sure that ever goes away. As experience grows, the challenges change and are less derailing. Through the challenges, you question: am I good enough? Can I really reveal my vulnerabilities and not get judged? I am OK dedicating most of my life to my career, will I regret this? Other challenges include: working for and with people with different value sets, and feeling like you’re one of a few that want to change most things, when most people want to change just a few things.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

Career wise, being the CEO of a business that wants to make a real difference to people’s lives – it’s fundamentally changed the work part of my life.

What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success? 

My ability and deep determination to believe that we can achieve anything, regardless of the perceived or actual barriers.

How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?

I’m a big fan of mentoring and coaching and instilling that in the culture of the business. I have been lucky enough to work with one or two people where coaching interventions have genuinely changed my mind-set and the choices I have made in life.  We need to find time for each other.

If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Equality, what would it be?

Empowering others to have unrivalled levels of self-confidence and the belief that having a balanced life is an enabler to career success and progression.

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger-self what would it be?

Embrace being a bit odd. Be more experimental, take uncalculated risks – the consequence of trying something and it not working out is, in the whole scheme of things, temporary.

What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?

Scaling Shepper and nurturing a larger company culture that’s not typical, and keeping the community core to our business.