Elite Hotels appoints Graham Copeman as managing director

Elite Hotels will welcome Graham Copeman as its new managing director in January 2026.

He succeeds Graeme Bateman, who has led the group for the past three decades and will assume the role of executive chairman of Elite Hotels and its charitable arm the Rotherwick Foundation.

Copeman joins from his previous role at Exclusive Collection, where he served as general manager of Pennyhill Park for more than six years. His hospitality career also includes executive positions with the Zetter Group, St James’s Hotel & Club and the Goring in London.

He will take on a key leadership role for Elite Hotels’ three properties: Tylney Hall hotel in Hampshire, Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club in East Sussex and the Grand hotel in Eastbourne.

Copeman said: “Elite Hotels has been shaped by Graeme Bateman’s leadership over the past 30 years, and I am enormously excited and incredibly proud to be joining the business at this point in its development. I look forward to working with Graeme and the team as we build on that extraordinary legacy and focus on the next chapter for the group.”

Bateman added: “We are delighted to welcome Graham Copeman to Elite Hotels and have every confidence that his wealth of experience will serve him well as he takes over responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company in 2026. I look forward to working with Graham and the senior leadership team over the coming years as we evolve the portfolio.”

Bateman will take over the chairmanship of Elite Hotels and the Rotherwick Foundation from Andrew Dixon, who retires after a decade of service. Dixon will continue to support the Rotherwick Foundation as a trustee.

“With over 40 years of service to the company, I am honoured to take on the reins of chairman and wish to express my immense gratitude to Andrew Dixon for his commitment to Elite Hotels over the past 10 years and for the invaluable guidance and support he has provided to me, the boards of Elite Hotels and the incorporated trustees of the Rotherwick Foundation,” Bateman said.

In August, group property Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club appointed Jonathan Brown as general manager. He took over from Ben Booker, who stepped down after 18 years at the helm.

Elite Hotels was founded in 1986.