Felton replaces long-standing CEO Nigel Steffens, who has been with Fespa for twenty years and became CEO a decade ago.

Steffens received a special award for his contribution to the organisation at Fespa 2013 in June. He is stepping back from day-to-day duties and will assume an ambassadorial and consultative role.

Two new appointees will work alongside Felton on the senior leadership team: Roz McGuinness joins as divisional director, and Sean Holt becomes general secretary.

McGuinness will be responsible for Fespa’s European and Asian events. She joins from i2i Events where she was worked on the huge Spring and Autumn Fair exhibitions. McGuinness also has prior experience of the printing industry having previously been group exhibitions manager at Pira International.

Holt’s role will involve co-ordinating support activities for Fespa’s 37 national member associations, funded through Fespa’s Profit for Purpose programme. He joins from the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport & Physical Activity, and prior to that spent 13 years with Sport England.

Along with his overall responsibilities as chief executive, Felton will also be in charge of Fespa’s developing markets including Mexico, Brazil and Africa.

Lascelle Barrow, Fespa president and joint managing director of London large-format print specialist Augustus Martin, praised Felton for driving forward an ambitious growth strategy since he joined Fespa in May 2011. “By attracting these highly-experienced people to work alongside Neil, we will be able to give equal focus to all areas of organisation’s ongoing development,” he said.

Last month Fespa promoted exhibition managers Michael Ryan and James Ford as part of its global growth plans.