DeLinda Forsythe

DeLinda has thrived in the contract furniture industry for 30 plus years.  By far the most rewarding portion of those years has been since opening ICE in 2006. The impetus for ICE was her son’s acceptance into Georgetown University. As a single mother with few financial options to help him achieve his educational goals, DeLinda was forced to try entrepreneurship.

It was a leap of faith that proved fortuitous with annual growth of 20-40% far exceeding the industry average of 3-8%.  This growth has earned ICE the opportunity to be noted as a Top 100 Fastest Growing Company in San Diego 2013-2017 and being ranked by Inc Magazine in the top 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the US 2014-2018.

This growth can be traced back to the start of WorkShop, a separate company started by DeLinda in 2015 that designed and locally built live edge conference tables, custom furniture and a brewery inspired benching system called WorkiBeam. WorkShop has since been integrated into ICE.  The addition of hospitality furnishings in 2013 enabled the company with the ability to furnish restaurants, night clubs, hotels but also by adding hospitality and residential furnishings into office spaces.  Teknion selected ICE as their exclusive San Diego distributor in 2018.  All of these perspectives and capabilities have led to the receipt of many design awards for ICE to include (2) IIDA Calibre awards and have led to ICE’s reputation as ‘San Diego’s most creative office furniture dealership’.  This capability is evident in the new ICE showroom located at The Park in Sorrento Valley.

DeLinda serves on the San Diego EDC Foundation board, the NAIOP Foundation board, the TranscenDANCE board and has volunteered over the years with TERI, MOM, Athena, IIDA, Reality Changers and other organizations that serve the community.

A main focus of her work is mentoring, specifically working with the Millennial generation either formally through ICE and the furniture industry or informally through her network, church or casually. Her monthly ICE CEO Message is a new addition to ICE staff meetings which focuses on educating others to the power of business ethics, accountability, entrepreneurship and community service.  “Doing well and doing good need not and should not be mutually exclusive” is her #1 Rule for Success which focuses on giving back to others and to the community as a powerful means to personal success. Her #4 Rule is “A rising boat lifts all tides” and that is evident in how she leads all of us to personal and professional success at ICE. 

DeLinda remarried in 2009 adding 3 daughters and 8 grandchildren to her family in addition to her son.

In 2014 she received  a SDBJ Women Who Mean Business award, in 2019 was named in the SDBJ Top 500 Most Influential people in San Diego and was nominated as a Leader in Service by Athena.

Clifton Strengths: Input, Strategic, Connectedness, Learner, Achiever