Karl Sharman

Karl is a Talent Management Consultant at Forgepoint Capital.

Prior to joining Forgepoint, Karl served as Head of Cyber Solutions and Consultancies – North America for the global talent recruitment firm Stott and May. He is an Advisor to the CEO of Fundsurfer, a UK-based crowdfunding and investment platform and an advisory board member for DarkWeb IQ, a cybersecurity vendor.

With over 10 years of recruitment experience in cybersecurity, Karl has helped build and scale teams across multiple types of business including Fortune 500, Pre-IPO late-stage ventures, early-stage startups, security consultancies and MSSPs. Karl is often brought on by companies for either extremely difficult hires, mass hires at speed and scale, or discreet leadership hires.

Prior to Stott and May, he was Vice President – North America for cybersecurity and risk management recruitment firm BeecherMadden. He was a former Head of Recruitment for the Southampton Football (Soccer) Club, where he assisted in brokering multi-millions worth of talent for a variety of clubs, and has served as Technical Director, Head of Recruitment, or Scout for several other football clubs (Woking, Brighton & Hove Albion, Ebbsfleet United, Cambridge United, AFC Wimbledon, Northern Ireland FA) – which has greatly informed his ability to help build and manage high performing teams.

Karl holds an MBA from the University of Essex, a Diploma in Business Management & Marketing from the Sports Business Institute of Barcelona and completed his undergraduate degree in Football and Business Studies at Southampton Solent University. He is a frequent speaker and contributor to a variety of publications and podcasts on talent acquisition and retention, professional development, and cybersecurity talent management. When not matching exceptional talent with great opportunities, you can find Karl watching a wide range of sport and talking all things cyber with his wife.