Bridgehead Communications
Portrait of Mark Aitchison
Photo: LinkedIn profile

MID-SIZE LARGE GROUP/21 HOMES

Mark Aitchison

CEO & Finance Director, Colten Care

Mark Aitchison is chief executive and group finance director of Colten Care, a family-owned provider of 21 care homes across southern England.

BIOGRAPHY

Mark Aitchison is chief executive and group finance director of Colten Care, a family-owned provider of residential, nursing and dementia care. The group runs 21 homes across Dorset, Hampshire, West Sussex and Wiltshire from a head office in Ringwood. Colten Care's own leadership page also names him as the group's Responsible Individual to the Care Quality Commission, so he handles regulatory matters as well as the finances.

He studied production and operations management at Nottingham University (BSc, 1986 to 1989) and started in industry. From 1997 to 2000 he was business development director at Kenwood Domestic Appliances, where he handled the disposal of non-core operations as manufacturing moved to China, and the sale and leaseback of the company's UK site. He then moved into corporate finance as an associate director at KPMG (2000 to 2005) and became a partner at the accountancy firm Princecroft Willis in 2005, where he was managing partner and corporate finance partner until 2011.

Aitchison joined Colten Care as group finance director in 2011. In October 2013 the group announced that Ian Hudson, its managing director since 1998, would become executive chairman, and that Aitchison would become chief executive while keeping the finance role. Both changes took effect on 1 December 2013.

As chief executive he has presided over a building programme. In October 2017 Colten Care agreed a £26 million financing package with NatWest to fund new homes and refurbishment; Aitchison said the group is family owned, has no external shareholders and owns the freeholds of the homes it runs. Colten Care won Company of the Year at the 2018 Solent Business Awards, with Aitchison collecting the trophy, and in November 2025 it won the Care Home Group (Medium) award at the National Care Awards. The group says seven of its homes are rated Outstanding by the CQC and the rest Good, and that it has been in carehome.co.uk's Top 20 care home groups for eleven consecutive years.

About Colten Care. Colten Care was founded in 1981 by John Colwell and Adrian Otten and has stayed in family ownership. It designs, builds and runs its own homes through its sister company Colten Developments, and employs about 2,000 people. See its rank and history

CAREER

  1. DEC 2013 – NOW

    Chief Executive and Group Finance Director · Colten Care NOW

  2. AUG 2011 – NOV 2013

    Group Finance Director · Colten Care

  3. JUN 2005 – JUN 2011

    Partner (managing partner and corporate finance partner) · Princecroft Willis LLP

  4. SEP 2000 – MAY 2005

    Associate Director, Corporate Finance · KPMG

  5. SEP 1997 – MAY 2000

    Business Development Director · Kenwood Domestic Appliances plc

ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS AND APPEARANCES

COUNTED FOR THE RANKING

2 articles in the twelve months to 6 October 2026 (2 national).