BARB Appoints Thelin As New Chief Executive

BARB has announced that Bjarne Thelin, director of planning at Carlton Television, will replace Caroline McDevitt as chief executive of the audience research body early next year.

McDevitt, who has held the chief executive’s position for five years, announced she was standing down in July, after overseeing the implementation of a new television audience measurement system and panel for the UK (see BARB Presents New Research System).

It had been thought that the job would be handed to either Hugh Johnson, head of commercial marketing and research at Channel 4, or Sue Elms, managing director of Carat Insight UK, after their names were mentioned on a shortlist leaked earlier this month.

Commenting on the appointment, BARB chairman, Nigel Walmsley, said: “We are delighted that Bjarne is taking on this appointment. His wide experience of television, planning, advertising and research makes him exceptionally well qualified to take BARB forward.”

Thelin added: “What really inspires me about becoming the chief executive of BARB is not only ensuring quality delivery of data but also thinking about the future of television and advertising. There are some strategic questions to be addressed in the coming years relating to audience measurement, and a lot of thinking to be done about how TV and advertising will evolve.”

BARB’s attempts to introduce a new audience measurement panel at the beginning of 2001 attracted considerable criticism from broadcasters and advertisers claiming that problems with the new methodology had undermined confidence in the robustness of the data (see BARB Defends New Ratings System).

This prompted Nick Phillips to step down as chairman of the audience research body following pressure from shareholders. He was replaced Nigel Walmsley, who was previously chairman of Carlton up to September 2001 (see Walmsley Takes Over From Phillips As New BARB Chairman).

BARB: 020 7529 5531 www.barb.co.uk

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