Christian Weller von Ahlefeld and the supervisory board of Nuremberg, Germany, research company The GfK Group, have agreed to terminate von Ahlefeld’s contract prematurely. Von Ahlefeld has served as CFO and director, human resources, and will leave GfK on December 31, 2009.

Horsham, Pa., research company TNS has named Bob Neuhaus global head, TNS finance. He will take on the position alongside his current role as executive vice president, TNS North American financial services.
Additionally, following the merger of TNS and Research International, TNS has made several appointments: Mike Gettle CFO/COO; David Errington director, global commercial; Jamie Hall CEO, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa; Heather Payne regional director, Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan; David Kieselstein CEO, North America; Bridget Armstrong executive vice president, U.S. consumer sector; Judith Passingham CEO, Europe; Denis Delmas deputy managing director, Europe; Kirk Ward director, offer development and integration; Stephen Factor global head, consumer sector; Jordi Ferrer director, strategy and corporate development; and Catherine Connolly global head, human resources.

InsightExpress, a Stamford, Conn., research company, has promoted Harmen Westra to senior director, Nancy Dillon to Northwest regional manager and Alicia Allijan to senior account executive.

Arbitron Inc., a Columbia, Md., research company, has hired three executive vice presidents: Afton L. Adams, CMO; Robert F. Henrick, customer solutions; and Taher G. Behbehani, chief strategy and business development officer.

Todd Costello has joined Marketing Systems Group, Fort Washington, Pa., as an account executive.
Seattle research company GMI has hired Karissa Brown as senior accountant; Brown will be based in Bellevue, Wash. Svetlana Gershman has been hired as data analyst, also based in Bellevue. Petter Nguyen has been hired as Flash programmer in Sydney, Australia. Jamie Regan has been named account executive, Northeast territory, and will be based in Boston.

Stephen Hughes has joined Cint U.K., a division of Stockholm, Sweden, research company Cint.

Lightspeed Research, Princeton, N.J., has named T. Mitchell McCauley CFO. McCauley succeeds Chris Urinyi, who has assumed the role of CEO.

Dallas research company Toluna has named Mike Billingsley senior vice president, sales for North America; Hugh Bloch, managing director of Asia-Pacific; Matthew Worden, business development director for the Southeast U.S. territory; and Sarah Terrelonge, business development director for Canada.

Russ Dunham has been hired as chief client officer of NeuroFocus, a Berkeley, Calif., research company.

BrainJuicer Group PLC, a Manchester, U.K., research company, has named Alex Hunt vice president, client service, U.S. Hunt will be based in White Plains, N.Y., until the fall, when he will open the firm’s Chicago office.

London research company Cello Group has announced a new board for its Cello Research division, with Vincent Nolan as chairman and Jane Shirley as CEO.

YouGov, a London research agency, has hired Adele Gritten as head of the financial services consulting team.

ABI Research, Oyster Bay, N.Y., has appointed Jason Blackwell as senior analyst and Michael Inouye as industry analyst. Blackwell and Inouye will be part of ABI’s digital home research practice.

Andrew Schmitt has joined Infonetics Research, Campbell, Calif., as directing analyst for optical; Schmitt will be based in Boston. Shira Levine has also been named directing analyst.

LightCounting LLC, a Eugene, Ore., research company, has hired Brad Smith as senior vice president.

Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive has appointed Enzo Micali as global executive vice president, technology and operations. Harris has also hired Marc H. Levin as senior vice president and general counsel. Micali and Levin will be based out of the company’s New York office.

Matt Coggan has joined JRA Research, Nottingham, U.K., as head of qualitative research.

Angus Reid Strategies, a Vancouver, B.C., research company has appointed Jaideep Mukerji and Hamish Marshall to its North American public affairs practice.

OTX, a Los Angeles research company, has hired Jim Nyce as executive vice president, managing director, OTX East, and Howard Ballon as executive vice president, managing director, OTX West.

Washington, D.C., research company MDLinx has hired Jessica McCann to its Pennsylvania team and Vikas Joshi as quality assurance manager, operations.