Founder

Prior to founding The Aidan Group in 2005, John was a Principal and Executive Vice President at commercial real estate firm Equis Corporation. During his 19-year career with the firm, John was instrumental in growing the company from 1 office in Chicago to 33 offices around the globe. He executed commercial transactions and projects in over 30 states at a value in excess of $2.0 billion. John left the company after it was successfully sold to an Australian based global services provider.

Since 2005, John has focused solely on residential development, primarily in and around Colorado resorts including Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Eagle, Silverthorne, and Vail. He has envisioned, planned, managed, and developed multiple residential projects ranging from $9,000,000+ single-family homes to $400,000 -$2,000,000 120-unit enclaves. In 2021 John and The Aidan Group began development of 90 luxury single family homes on the Colorado front range in The Village at Castle at Castle Pines. All of the projects John has envisioned and executed required that he manage the entitlement, design, planning, infrastructure and vertical development process. John’s passion is design and the results of collaborating with bright, creative people to reach an extraordinary result.

John received a BA in Business and Communications from the University of Minnesota.

John joined The Aidan Group in 2007 and oversees the Company’s accounting, tax, budgeting, treasury and finance, planning and analysis functions. As the CFO, he is active in all financial decisions for the Company and related partnerships.

Prior to joining The Aidan Group, John spent 14 years in the industry with two of the nation’s largest homebuilders, including 4 years as the Assistant CFO and Vice President of Corporate Finance of MDC Holdings, Inc. (Richmond American Homes) in Denver, CO. His responsibilities included oversight of corporate accounting, tax, internal audit, budgeting and planning, and information technology. He also spent 10 years as the Corporate Controller of M/I Schottenstein Homes, Inc. in Columbus, OH. Prior to that, he worked for 4 years in public accounting for John Gerlach and Company, Columbus, OH.

John received a BA from Wittenberg University and an Executive MBA from The Ohio State University and is a certified public accountant.

Christopher Larson is a partner and COO of The Aidan Group. As a seasoned real estate executive with more than 30-years’ experience, Christopher’s expertise is developing and operating real estate services for domestic and global corporate real estate clients. Christopher has deep experience providing business consulting, financial, and strategic services to government, nonprofit, and healthcare organizations. He also has extensive experience providing tactical expense management and corporate asset management services specifically focused on total cost of ownership, portfolio optimization, and strategic services.

Prior to joining The Aidan Group, Christopher was the Executive Vice President of Global Occupier Services at Cushman & Wakefield. During his 18-year tenure he was responsible for developing strategy and managing BPO client delivery including all operational aspects of major multi-service line domestic and international Fortune 50 clients, generating $100 million in revenue annually. Prior to merging with Cushman & Wakefield, he held similar roles at DTZ ,UGL and Equis, developing, growing and managing global bundled client services in the commercial real estate sector including account management, transaction management, project management and financial services.

Christopher received a BS in Clinical Psychology at the University of Colorado, an MHA from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI, and has received executive degrees from both Harvard University and the University of Oxford.

John Vitella has been a Strategic Advisor with The Aidan Group since 2017 and handles a wide variety of operational responsibilities including land sourcing, land planning and entitlement, land development, sales and marketing and vertical construction. John invested the first 10 years of his career as a professional planning consultant providing land use planning, development review and housing expertise to a variety of municipalities, developers and homebuilders throughout New Jersey, and as a housing research associate in Washington, DC and Philadelphia, PA.

In 1998, John transitioned into the new home building industry with nationally recognized luxury home builder Toll Brothers where he worked in a variety of positions including land acquisition manager and project manager in various locations in New Jersey, and ultimately serving as Division President for the Metro Denver Division from 2005 through 2010.

Since 2010, John has held positions at other large homebuilders in the Denver market including David Weekley Homes as Division President and Century Communities as Sr. VP of Land. Currently, John is involved in the acquisition, entitlement and disposition of fully-entitled, ready to build, new home communities to many of Denver’s largest homebuilders.

John holds a BA from the University of Delaware and a Master of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) from Rutgers University.

Molly has been an instrumental part of The Aidan Group for 15-years. Prior to joining The Aidan Group, she worked with both John Niemi and Christopher Larson as an Executive Assistant at Equis Corp., and was a key part many successful transactions. Currently Molly provides a number of functions for The Aidan Group, including Executive Assistant, Office Manager, Bookkeeper, and AR/AP Manager. In her spare time, Molly enjoys playing tennis.

Molly received a BA in Criminal Justice from Metro State University in Denver.