Santander has made two hires to Breakthrough, its support programme for small businesses. John Williams has been appointed to the new role of head of Breakthrough and will develop a regional strategy to help the firm work with fast-growing businesses in the UK. He was previously chief executive of Gateway to London. Darren Hart, previously of Barclays, has been hired to manage Breakthrough's £200m growth capital investment programme. He has experience in debt and equity structuring as well as fund management.