Bridgehead Communications
Portrait of James Deeley
Photo: LinkedIn profile

LARGE AND MID-SIZE HOME CARE GROUP/53 BRANCHES

James Deeley

Chief Executive Officer, Alina Homecare

James Deeley is chief executive and co-founder of Alina Homecare, a private home care group in the south of England, and a former chair of SeeAbility.

BIOGRAPHY

James Deeley is chief executive and co-founder of Alina Homecare, a private home care provider that runs branches across the south of England. Bridges Fund Management took a majority stake in the group in August 2025 through its Inclusive Growth strategy. Bridges had first invested in 2014, and it said the management team led by Deeley would re-invest alongside it and continue to lead the business.

Deeley qualified as a solicitor and trained at Slaughter and May, where he joined the corporate and banking department and spent two and a half years seconded to the Paris office. He moved in-house in 1995 as group legal adviser at Charter plc, then became IPO director at Regus (1998 to 1999) and head of group legal at DS Smith (1999 to 2002). From 2002 to 2005 he was corporate services director and company secretary at the AIM-listed accountancy group Numerica. He sat on the main board of Charter International plc from 2006 to January 2012, as legal director and company secretary first and as commercial director from 2009, until Colfax acquired the company in January 2012.

His route into care ran through the charity SeeAbility (formerly the Royal School for the Blind). SeeAbility says he volunteered in Leatherhead for six years as an independent advocate before becoming a trustee in 2005. He chaired its board of trustees from 2012 and has been a vice president since 2019. Alina's own account says he developed the plan for a home care company during his time at the charity, and that he founded Alina with Fergus Kee.

Alina opened a first branch on the south coast in March 2014 and made its first acquisition, a single-branch business in Hertfordshire, that May. A second acquisition in July 2014 doubled the group's size. In December 2024 Alina sold its Disability Support division, 11 branches, to Swanton Care and Community and kept the homecare business, then 45 branches. Deeley's executive education includes the INSEAD Advanced Management Programme (2010).

About Alina Homecare. Alina Homecare is a private home care provider operating branches across the south of England, majority-owned by Bridges Fund Management since August 2025. Bridges said Alina delivered 1.1 million hours of care to more than 1,300 people in the previous year. See its rank and history

CAREER

  1. JAN 2013 – NOW

    Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder · Alina Homecare NOW

  2. 2019 – NOW

    Vice President · SeeAbility NOW

  3. 2012 – SEP 2018

    Chair of the Board of Trustees · SeeAbility

  4. 2005 – 2012

    Trustee · SeeAbility

  5. 2009 – JAN 2012

    Commercial Director (main board) · Charter International plc

  6. JUL 2006 – 2008

    Legal Director and Company Secretary (main board) · Charter International plc

  7. JUN 2005 – JUN 2006

    Special Adviser · Antilles (UK) Limited

  8. APR 2002 – JUN 2005

    Corporate Services Director and Company Secretary · Numerica Group plc

  9. NOV 1999 – MAR 2002

    Head of Group Legal · DS Smith

  10. MAR 1998 – NOV 1999

    IPO Director and Director of Legal Services · Regus plc

  11. OCT 1995 – MAR 1998

    Group Legal Adviser · Charter plc

  12. SEP 1988 – OCT 1995

    Trainee solicitor and solicitor, London and Paris offices · Slaughter and May

ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS AND APPEARANCES