An advisory business has promoted two managing directors in the wake of the death of its chief executive and founder Simon Chamberlain.

James Stevenson has been appointed as MD of Succession Group and Sanjay Shah has been made MD of Succession Advisory Services.

Mr Chamberlain died suddenly aged 51 in mid-March. A founding partner of St James Place, he set up Succession in 2009, which has grown to 350 Financial Planners. He was also the founder of the Thinc Group (now Bluefin).

Mr Stevenson joined Succession Group in 2015 as group operating director. In September 2016, he assumed full commercial, operational and financial responsibility for Succession Group. As MD he will focus on defining the overall strategic direction for the group.

Mr Shah began working with Succession Advisory Services in 2010, and in 2014 sold his IFA and corporate benefits business to Succession Group. As MD of Succession Advisory Services, he will be responsible for supporting affiliated members to become sale-ready, as part of Succession’s accelerated acquisition model.

Succession executive chair Ray Pierce said: “To successfully scale our operations to meet the increased demands for client-centric service and solutions requires the vision and people skills to deliver. These new appointments reflect the continued development of the Succession team and underline our commitment to creating the UK's largest privately-owned wealth management businesses. They also reflect our refreshed commitment to be an employer of choice, attracting and developing the very best people, and creating a company culture that wholly invests in its people to redefine what is seen in the industry today.”

The company also announced a number of other appointments.

Simon Charles becomes group HR director, while Hazel Hodge, Helen Blackmore, Karen King and Mark Stokes have been appointed into strategic roles.

Mr Charles has nearly 30 years of corporate HR experience, including two IPOs.

Prior to joining, he was the group HR director for Flybe for nine years and before that had HR Director roles with RHM, Quaker, PepsiCo and senior HR roles with Unilever PLC and PwC.

He will be focusing on “attracting, developing and retaining talent to deliver a culture of ownership in a business that is building genuine scale”.