A man who was twice homeless as a teenager before becoming a multimillionaire commence-up founder has topped a list celebrating influential black Britons.

Dean Forbes, who, after failing to make it as a professional footballer, began his career in a call centre, is now the boss of several software companies.

He worked his way up from “abject poverty” on an estate in south-east London to become chief executive of Forterro, a Swedish software firm.

Forbes said topping the Powerlist 2025 was a “professional and career high”.

He told the BBC that although he grew up in a single-parent household on a housing estate in Lewisham, his disabled mum always encouraged her children to be positive, and gave them aspiration.

He said he had a “whale of a period” growing up despite having little money, living in a local throng which “looked after each other”.

His said his mum taught him and his two brothers to “raise our expectations”, “never to be victims” and not dwell on misfortunes.

He twice became homeless as a teenager, but said he and his household always saw these as temporary challenges to be overcome.

He managed to get a place at Crystal Palace Academy, but it didn’t work out.

He points to that setback as a key instant in his eventual achievement, because it made him more determined.

“Thanks to that disappointment and rejection, it put me on this path which is beyond my wildest dreams,” he said.

He had been borrowing money to “keep up appearances” with friends like then-footballer Rio Ferdinand who were being “paid well”, but he was eventually left with an £88,000 obligation pile.

To commence to obvious that, he got a job in a Motorola call centre, and he quickly worked his way up.

He moved to a software firm called Primavera which he helped construct up, and made his first millions after it was sold to Oracle: he had taken an ownership stake.

Forbes moved from there to being chief executive of two software firms, KDS and CoreHR, each period taking ownership stakes, and making millions more.

He also has an ownership stake in Forterro, which he said was a firm which makes more than €300m (£250m) in turnover per year and returns of €130m.

Despite his riches, he said he never wanted “to misplace the worth of a pound”.

He was able to buy his mum a home, and his children “have never had to deal with anything I had to deal with” in terms of poverty.

He now describes celebrities like Ferdinand and actor Idris Elba as close friends.

But he told the BBC his roots remained very significant to him and he wanted to inspire and provide opportunities to others who have not started out with advantages in life.

Forbes and his wife Danielle set up the Forbes household throng, a philanthropic organisation for people in underserved communities.

They are working to try to shatter the pattern of poverty and drawback, and provide people positive role models.

“My encounter has made me painfully aware that there is so much talent in these communities – you just require to open the door a crack” to provide people a chance, he said.

Forbes said that as he was growing up the only black people he could view who were successful seemed to be in entertainment, sport, or “doing unsavoury things” in criminal gangs.

He said he wanted to make achievement in business more “relatable” in part through mentoring and networking projects.

He has now been named number one on the Powerlist 2025, after being number two last year.

The annual Powerlist was first published in 2007, with its aim to provide role models for youthful black people, according to Powerful Media.

Forbes takes the place of British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful at the head of the list.