Darius is a Principal at SLM Partners based in our London office and leads our forestry investment work in Europe. He is responsible for day-to-day management of the SLM Silva Fund in Ireland, the development of new forestry strategies in Europe, and all matters related to forest carbon offsets.

Prior to joining SLM Partners, Darius Sarshar worked as a consultant on land investment strategies. His projects included the design and launch of the &Green Fund for the IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative and the Norwegian government; the development of an African greenfield forestry investment fund for TNC; and advisory roles with the World Bank’s Forestry Investment Programme (FIP), the African Development Bank, and private equity funds.

Before that, Darius co-led the Asian business of New Forests, a leading forestry investment company based in Australia with US$6 billion in assets under management. In his seven years with the company, Darius ran the environmental markets investment programme for blue chip clients, and then raised and deployed an award-winning $170 million Asian forestry fund. Prior to joining New Forests, Darius ran the FSC certification programmes of SGS, worked for WWF’s flagship Global Forest & Trade Network programme, and ran a farm forestry contracting business in the UK.

Darius has an Honours degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Forestry from the University of Oxford, an MBA from the Melbourne Business School and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has co-authored publications on forestry and featured in TV documentaries on sustainable forest management for the BBC, ArteTV (France) and NHK (Japan).