Optimal Investment Services, a Geneva-based alternative investment business belonging to the Santander Group, has appointed Dara Bahadori as head o

Optimal Investment Services, a Geneva-based alternative investment business belonging to the Santander Group, has appointed Dara Bahadori as head of global business development. He succeeds Toby Gauvain, who has left Optimal and is taking a break from finance to launch a new British school in Madrid.

Bahadori has more than 22 years of financial services experience, having been a deputy branch manager at PaineWebber and first vice-president of institutional equity sales at Kidder Peabody, promoting alternative investment products to institutions in Switzerland and Italy.

He was subsequently a director of institutional equity sales at UBS Warburg, and before joining Optimal, Bahadori was a managing partner at Prodis Advisors responsible for the promotion of alternative investment products.

As head of global business development at Optimal, Bahadori's mandate is to further develop the firm's presence in the European, Asian and Middle Eastern markets.