The head of the largest business support organisation in Wales is stepping down after 16 years at its helm.

David Russ, the managing director of the parent company behind the Centre for Business and South Wales Chamber of Commerce, is to leave the post on March 31, 2014, as part of a planned succession.

He will be replaced by a new group chief executive, who is currently being recruited.

Russ joined what was then the Newport and Gwent Enterprise as managing director in 1997, triggering a period of growth which has seen the organisation expand its operations across south, west and mid Wales.

The organisation has grown from a £300,000 turnover and 11 staff to become the largest business support provider in Wales with a projected turn-over of £6m in the year to March 2014 and 95 staff in 11 offices. It also now manages 300 industrial and serviced office units and delivers business advice across 14 of Wales’s 22 boroughs.

David Russ said: “It’s been an exciting and fulfilling journey and, having achieved the goals I set myself, I feel this is the right time to hand the baton to someone to build on these foundations and take the organisation to the next stage.

“The Centre for Business and the South Wales Chamber, as they are now, are a far cry from the organisation I joined in 1997. Newport and Gwent Enterprise was well-respected but it was seen by many as a bit ‘slippers and cardigan’. Today, we’re operating across south, west and mid Wales, supporting and advising thousands of businesses and influencing policy at all levels."