A Sydney-based management consultant he specialises in higher education and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. He was a Public Policy Scholar at The Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC in 2013.

Dean's research projects are on The Creation of the Modern Knowledge Economy and on Cities of Memory and Meaning. He writes for the Times Higher Ed and recently published an essay on ‘Knowledge, Creativity and the City’ in the Routledge Handbook of Urbanization in Southeast Asia and an essay in Global Policy. A major co-edited book on Planning Asian Cities: Risks and Resilience was published by Routledge in 2011.

He was on the editorial boards of Asian Pacific Viewpoint and the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, was on the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Register of Experts (2012-2019) and was Executive Producer of the Ethiopian film Yezore Dimer.

As Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President at Flinders University from 2000-2013 he led the international activities of the University, through the International Office, and the community engagement program, including the Southern Knowledge Transfer Partnership Office, Flinders University Art Museum and City Gallery, and Flinders University at Victoria Square.

He served on the Board of Directors of Study Adelaide (2000-2012), Flinders Consulting Pty Ltd (2003-2007), International Education Network Ltd (2001-2008) and International Education Network Consulting (Hong Kong) Ltd (2003-2008). He has chaired both the Universities Australia Deputy Vice-Chancellors (International) Committee (2004-2008) and the Innovative Research Universities Australia International Committee (2004-2009 ). He was on the Australian Universities Quality Agency Audit Panel from 2008-2011, Chairing the Audit of Deakin University and serving on the Audit Panel for the University of Western Australia and Curtin University.

From 1992 to 1997 he was Head of the School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management at Flinders.  Prior to that Dean held appointments in the Research School of Pacific Studies at The Australian National University (1980-1991), Monash University (1975-1979) and the University of Papua New Guinea (1972-1974),

He has worked for AusAID and the Australian Institute of Urban Studies, and has been a consultant to the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Population Fund, International Labour Organization and AusAID, as well as working with government agencies and research institutes in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

A graduate of Flinders University, Dean Forbes completed an MA at the University of Papua New Guinea and a PhD at Monash University.