From Eagles’ nest to Eagle networking: Gholam Bakhtiar ’91 helps guide the next generation of ASLers
It was a chilly December evening in 2023 at the Warrington in Maida Vale, venue of the annual ASL alumni pub social. Amanda Mond ’20 approached Gholam Bakhtiar ’91, and asked if he knew Steve-O (aka Steve Glover ’92) personally. Gholam responded, “Actually, I do know him, but not very well.” And then the two just started chatting.
What began as a conversation about a notorious ASL alum-turned-celebrity prankster soon evolved into a networking chat over coffee. Amanda and Gholam discussed the increasing difficulty of breaking into the finance industry, and Amanda, who is set to graduate from Hult Business School this April with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, laid out the sort of work experience she was looking for. Gholam—at the time a managing partner at a boutique investment firm based in Mayfair—offered her an internship.
For three months over the course of last winter and spring, Amanda worked with Gholam and his team on a variety of projects. One such project was helping Gholam conduct interviews to fill Coleman’s summer WorkX cohort.
WorkX, ASL’s signature high school internship placement program, has allowed Gholam to take 15 finance-curious students under his wing over the past two summers and has given the students, in turn, invaluable insights into the realities of professional finance.
Being a recent ASL graduate, “Amanda could connect a lot more with what goes on at ASL,” Gholam shares. “Sometimes people would say to me, ‘I’m doing AP whatever,’ and that didn’t exist in my time. I would turn to Amanda and say, ‘You know, I don’t even know what this means on this person’s CV, because I graduated so long ago.’ It was great to have her there.”
For her part, Amanda got the unique benefit of being on the “other” side of job interviews early in her career, with Gholam guiding her through interview best practices.
In addition to giving her work experience, Gholam “provided his guidance and mentorship—which allowed me to secure a summer 2024 internship in investment management at the Bank of New York,” Amanda reflects. “I received a return offer and will begin a two-year graduate scheme there in August.”
“She was in the office when they called her to tell her she’d been offered the internship,” Gholam remembers. “It was quite good.”
Gholam thinks deeply about how people’s backgrounds influence what they think they want to do, and what they think is possible for themselves. As a child, Gholam, along with several family members, fled Iran’s Islamic Revolution for London. After a short stint at ACS Hampstead, which closed in the early 1980s, Gholam enrolled at ASL for Grade 3, and stayed through graduation.
The parents of Gholam’s ASL classmates largely worked in banking, consulting and other such well-paid, “expat-friendly” professions. For people whose parents worked—or work—in that world, Gholam says, finance and related industries can seem like the only logical postgraduate step.
He laughs as he tells a story told to him by a former colleague, whose five-year-old son came downstairs all dressed for work. “His son said, ‘Dad, can I come to work with you? I don’t want to go to nursery anymore,’” Gholam recounts. “He had only been to the office twice: for Christmas, and for bring-your-kids-to-work day. So he recalled, ‘Dad, you get bouncy castles, and they give you popcorn all day! You have the best job ever.”
“But that’s not the reality,” Gholam says. In fact, he finds finance to be exceedingly cutthroat these days, and not necessarily a path he would pursue again if given the chance to do it all over.
He sees his involvement with next-generation Eagles just starting out in their careers as a chance to help guide them toward the truth of the finance world, and to help them advance within it if that’s their goal—or to gently steer them elsewhere, if it seems like finance might not be their path to real professional fulfillment.
“I try to explain to people that you should focus on what you enjoy doing,” Gholam says. “It shouldn’t just be what your parents want you to do. And it should be something where you have a level of flexibility—because sometimes you can get pigeonholed into a role. It’s a matter of having a network.”
And for the young people who do not come from finance-industry families, he feels equally passionate about helping them get a leg up, if that’s what they want.
Gholam talks about coincidentally meeting an ASL alum, Zayn Daniels ’18, with whom he was connected through a former boss. “I worked with Zayn through a whole process of how you can come from a very different background to the average person who ends up in finance or consulting or most of these industries. And I told him that you just have to be honest with people. Most people will only tell you what they think you want to hear.”
Gholam recalls an interview he did once in which the interviewee said, bluntly, “‘The only reason I really want to do this job is because I want to get two years of experience, get trained and then go do something else.’” According to Gholam, who values honesty above most things, “That’s a very good answer.”
Gholam (center) is pictured here with classmate and friend Giorgio Mandelli ’91 (left) and 2023 WorkX intern Novin Gosch ’23 (right) at the 2025 alumni pub night in London.
WorkX did not exist in Gholam’s ASL days—not that he was thinking much about finance then. He was a self-proclaimed procrastinator in school, whose interest in finance, when it did emerge, revolved largely around the idea that it was an industry he could join for 10 years, and then retire. (He did do finance for 10 years, but then he continued on for another 10, and counting!)
Gholam worked retail in high school and undertook his first banking internship between his third and fourth years of college. He landed at that first bank, he says, more or less out of luck. From there, he went on to work at a series of big banks over the ensuing decades, before starting to gravitate toward smaller, less traditional firms, where he enjoys closer relationships with coworkers and does more work alongside the tech industry than the pure finance focus of his career’s earlier days.
“I remember being 14, and we all wanted to go play in the NBA or be professional soccer players,” Gholam laughs. “When you're 15, 16, 17, the last thing on your mind is networking. Though I think it’s changed a little bit because of WorkX,” he muses. “I could never imagine myself as a sophomore having LinkedIn. You’ve got 200 connections and you’re 15?”
Today’s 15-year-olds—those choosing to participate in WorkX placements, at least—are quite mature, Gholam says. “One of them, we would have hired. Really.”
He is referring to Maria ’26, who spent a week as a WorkX intern at Coleman this past summer before beginning her Grade 11 year at ASL.
“I have interviewed tons of people from all the top universities in the world; I’ve had colleagues who have been valedictorians and whiz kids. And honestly, as soon as Maria left after that week, two of my colleagues asked, ‘Do you have her parents’ email address?’” Gholam says. “Our chief operating officer said, ‘I’ve got to send an email to her parents saying, ‘Your daughter was unbelievable.’”
During her week at Coleman, one of Gholam’s colleagues assigned Maria a project, instructing her not to consult ChatGPT for help. “She’s never worked in finance, and she says, ‘Yeah, I can do the basic programming.’ Not only did she do that, but she went one level further and built the full model,” Gholam marvels. “When she sent it to my colleague, he asked, ‘Did she use ChatGPT?’ So the IT department checked, and she hadn’t. She is just one of these people who automatically gets it.”
Thinking back on her WorkX experience, Maria—who is, aptly, a co-president of ASL’s Women in Business Club this year—says, “Gholam was truly an incredible mentor. When I walked in on the first day, he was super welcoming and encouraged me to learn as much as possible during the week. He answered every question I threw at him, showed me his favorite lunch spots, and helped me get an opportunity to speak with other members of the office.”
But what surprised Maria the most was everything Gholam offered her after her week was up. “He wanted me to pursue and explore something I was passionate about, so he offered me his contacts, and helped me get in touch with them and explore opportunities outside of what I had done with him.” (Maria is interested in luxury goods and marketing, and Gholam has friends who work in lifestyle management. He made the necessary introductions.)
“He is one of the most friendly, generous and helpful people I have met, and those who get a chance to work with him are lucky to do so,” says Maria. Speaking with Gholam about the ASL community and his drive to give back through engagement with students and alumni alike, one gets the sense that Maria won’t be the last to receive this lucky break.
Feeling inspired to network with the ASL community? Join us on ASL Connects, the exclusive networking portal for ASL alumni! And if you’re a London-based professional and are interested in hosting students for a future WorkX placement, we would love to hear from you! Email pca.workx@asl.org for more information.