Paul Amadi, group director of fundraising at the RNIB, is to replace Joe Saxton as the chair of the Institute of Fundraising.

Amadi will take over from Saxton, driver of ideas at research consultancy nfpSynergy, when his three-year term as the Institute’s chair of trustees comes to end in July.

His appointment will see the position return to that of a practicing director of fundraising, following in the footsteps of Saxton’s predecessor Simon Burne, who worked at Acorn’s Children’s Hospice and NCH during his tenure.

Amadi has spent over a decade in fundraising and sat as trustee of the Institute for the past three years. Before joining the RNIB in June 2006, he spent four years as director of fundraising at Sense, and was former head of fundraising at Leonard Cheshire. He one of the founders and former chair of the Black Fundraisers Network Special Interest Group and current chair of the Institute’s Professional Development Committee, from which he will now step down.

Amadi said he was “delighted” to have been chosen to become the next chair of the Institute. He paid tribute to the huge and positive impact that Saxton has had in the role, but said he was aware “there is so much more to be done to develop a vibrant, confident, professional sector.”

Saxton said the Institute was lucky to get an experienced fundraising director as its new chair.“His experience at the sharp end of the day to day pressures of being a fundraiser will be invaluable in his role.”