Until January 2006, Mike Kirkham was Chief Executive of Taylor Nelson Sofres plc (‘TNS’), a leading market information group. He joined AGB Research in 1970 and was appointed to the Taylor Nelson AGB board in 1992. He became Chief Executive of TNS in 2001. He has extensive international experience, having had responsibility for TNS’s activities in Europe, North America and Asia. He is also a non-executive director of BPP Holdings plc and non-executive Chairman of The Mediatel Group, a privately-owned media services business. He is a graduate of Oxford University.