McDevitt, who has held the chief executive's job for five years, announced she was standing down in July after piloting the organisation through the introduction of a controversial new audience panel.
The appointment of Thelin comes as something of a surprise because he was not on the shortlist leaked earlier this month.
However, the appointment makes more sense to some, following the installation of Nigel Walmsley, a former deputy chief executive of Carlton Communications, as chairman of Barb in August 2002.
It was thought the race for the Barb job was down to Hugh Johnson, head of commercial marketing and research at Channel 4, and Sue Elms, managing director of Carat Insight UK.
Barb faced one of its most difficult periods in the last year as it launched a new audience panel, which was plagued by problems as Barb struggled to sign up a big enough panel.
The lack of a credible size led to wild variations in the audience ratings and led to Nick Phillips being ousted as Barb chairman to be replaced by Walmsley.
"It has been a rewarding and challenging five years overseeing the contractual arrangements and implementation of an entirely new TV audience measurement service and panel for the UK. The new service is established and running well. I am leaving Barb in better shape then ever to face the future and, therefore, it is time for me to move on and pursue other interests," McDevitt said when announcing she was standing down.
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