Dr. Ashkan Pitchforth is CEO and owner of South Cliff Dental Group, which has grown to 23 practices across southern England with more than 300 employees and clinicians and annual turnover exceeding £15 million. He purchased his first practice, in Handcross, in 2015, when it generated £450,000 in annual turnover, and expanded the group without formal business training by winning six NHS tender procurement processes and acquiring four struggling practices from Colosseum Dental.
Under his leadership, the group was ranked 33rd on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 in December 2020. Pitchforth has also served as a 50 percent shareholder at Family Dental Centre Crawley, as an executive member of the West Sussex Local Dental Committee since 2013, and as a clinical advisor for NHS England between 2017 and 2020.
His guiding philosophy is that businesses aren't built directly, but grown by nurturing people who in turn build the business, and he has structured South Cliff Dental Group to give associates a path toward either clinical advancement or business ownership. The group is currently constructing a new headquarters in Crawley that will include dedicated training facilities.
