Our Team

Shawn Johnston

He / They

Founder and Lead Strategist

A professional designer and strategist with 26 years of experience, Shawn is the Founder and Principal of Forge and Smith. He plays a variety of roles from client rep to sales person, project manager to head bottle washer.

My Why

I love the process of craft… the learning, experimentation and honing of it. To collaborate with people and create something that other people can use and benefit from? That’s a great way to make a living.

Troy Kelly

Operations Director and Partner

Troy coins himself a jack-of-all-trades, particularly when it comes managing all the parts that make up a website. When he’s not rocking WordPress sites, he’s waxing his board and expanding his small business of crafting Puka shell necklaces.

Pam Berg

She / Her

Director of Strategy

Pam’s backgrounds in journalism, private investigation, and public libraries all flowed into her ultimate career in digital strategy – she loves good storytelling! She’s a master of content writing and an analytics nerd. In her “spare time” (lol) she hangs out with the many animals on her ranch and reviews Westerns.

My Why

In every job I’ve had, my favourite thing has always been translating complex stuff into words people can easily understand. Whether it’s analytics data or the mechanics of WordPress or the best flow of content on a page to get a conversion – I love to help!

Oscar Santiago

he/him/his

QA Manager

Oscar is a versatile and experienced digital project manager, which makes sense since his favourite thing to do is watch The Flash with his sons. When he’s not helping our clients get to the finish line, he’s training and competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions. Watch out!

Serena Embree

She/Her

Project Manager

Serena has never figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. With her background in Graphic/Web Design, QA, Sales, Digital Marketing, and Customer Service, image specialist on the Content Team at F&S was a perfect landing place for her many talents. When she isn’t looking for the perfect image, she’s also a hairstylist and nail tech, and when she’s not working, can be found playing with one of her 3 pet snakes or singing karaoke.

My Why

I get my job satisfaction from helping people, be it to look their best or to put their best foot forward online.

Damian Jolley

He / Him

UX/UI Design Lead

Damian is obsessed with creating engaging digital experiences. He brings to his role at Forge and Smith over 10 years of design experience in digital design, branding and marketing. User interface and experience (UX/UI) is where Damian combines his love for systems and processes and his obsessions with design and typography. Damian grew up in Australia, and moved to Vancouver in 2009. Outside of work, Damian enjoys biking, concerts, tennis, coffee – and any kind of adventure, big or small.

My Why

I love hearing people’s stories, how they started their organization, why they care about what they do – what makes them unique. Creating websites for these companies, I get to work with the most passionate people across various industries. I love being a part of helping people and organizations grow and achieve their goals – it’s extremely rewarding.

Lizzie Scott

She/Her

Web Designer

Lizzie is a UI/UX designer with a diverse background in design, digital marketing and communications. When she’s not designing, you’ll likely find her at the beach or in the trees, always equipped with coffee and a camera.

Cameron Lindsay

Lead Engineer

Cameron thinks coding is fun, and his friends and family hope against hope that one day he’ll come to his senses. He has a wife and a dog, drinks a lot of coffee and loves Manilla Road.

Sean Stobo

Engineer

Sean is a developer living in beautiful Pemberton. When he gets away from the keyboard he can be found mountain biking, skiing and exploring the BC wilderness. His passion for computers is only eclipsed by his love of the outdoors.

Vanessa Bertoletti

she/her

Product Engineer

Vanessa is a passionate web developer with a background in international trade. Vanessa has a strong sense of ethics and a driven, results-oriented personality. When she’s not debugging, she travels, watches cat videos, and dies her hair in crazy colours.

My Why

Since the turn of the century, the web has been paramount to most of us. Being part of enhancing our experiences in this constantly mutating realm, making it clear, accessible, and following new technologies, has been highly fulfilling. Besides, programming is another way of being creative. Not exactly in the visual sense, but solution wise.

Tim Waugh

He / Him

Product Engineer

Tim is a former musician turned developer based in Kitchener, Ontario. He loves to learn and enjoys troubleshooting problems more than he probably should. Tim is a lifetime Arizona Coyotes fan and passionate musician. If he’s not watching sports or going to concerts, he’s writing his own music with his bands or scouting hockey prospects for blogs and publications.

My Why

This line of work offers so much to my personal growth, the challenges and problem-solving are incredibly fun and rewarding – I feel like I’m essentially being paid to build big digital Lego sets all day, how can you beat that? I feel you can never stop growing, and being a developer satisfies that with how much I learn from not only the work itself, but my wonderful peers here at F&S.

Sarah Nachia

She / Her

SEO Strategist

Sarah is what you call a chameleon in design. She takes on all forms, a natural problem-solver conquering challenges along the way, and an advocate for self-development. She’s known for going past the limit to achieve her fullest potential, with a winning attitude. Apart from being a young grasshopper as an SEO specialist, you will most likely find her curating the best Spotify playlists, a Masterchef of UberEats, training in boxing, and a Formula 1 enthusiast.

My Why

What’s not to love about the digital world? I get to evolve with it like a Pokemon and strengthen my artistry into mastery. All I can say is “put me in coach!

Gabriel Dias

Build Specialist

Gabriel is from Brazil, and he has been an athlete since a young age. He was a tennis competitor until graduating in college D1 as a student athlete, while majoring in Business Administration. If you don’t see him in front of the screen coding or playing games, he is probably outdoors living the athlete lifestyle.

Casey Telford

She/Her

Content Specialist

Trained at a young age on Hooked on Phonics and still seeking the high of the Scholastic Book Fair, Casey is a copy and content writer currently nestled with two cats in the quietish solace of Midtown Toronto. When not writing in multiple voices with brain tab counts matching browser tabs, Casey can be found on Twitter, at Indigo (again), watching informative true crime documentaries or crouched on your favourite professional soccer field, helping to grow the beautiful game in Canada.

My Why

Whether they want to be funny, punny or to the point, I love harnessing my versatility in voices, tones and tendency to overthink to support clients in figuring out what they want to say and how to say it.

Arjun Manoharan

QA Specialist

Arjun has 4+ years of experience as a business specialist, working closely with clients from Fortune 500 companies. He also has marketing experience. In his free time, he enjoys participating in rifle shooting competitions and has even earned a National Level Gold Medal. He is also an avid PlayStation player, and loves to go on treks in the Himalayan ranges during his vacations.

Satoe Sakonjo

QA Specialist

Satoe has a background in web development, accounting, and coffee making. She’s passionate about creating beautiful interfaces, and believes that a good design can change how people engage with a website. Originally from Tokyo, Satoe now lives in Vancouver. She fell in love with the mountains and people in this city. She loves hiking, swimming, and playing fetch as Dog-Mom to Yomi the border collie. You can find them hiking on mountains, rain or shine. Her current goal is to master Spanish.

Andrea Iñurria

Content Strategist (on Mat Leave)

Born visual narrator, Andrea uses digital marketing to share the stories she believes in. She takes populating a client’s website very seriously; when she is not obsessing over the perfect pic for a website, she can be found talking with her furry son Ander the Pug, hiking, and/or enjoying a pale ale. An enthusiastic, lifelong commercial photographer, Andrea frequently drools over all the delicious food waiting for her to immortalize it with her camera.