Neel, with more than 15 years experience in media and advertising, has worked for brands including Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Barclays, Chrysalis Radio and Tetley Tea.
He started his career at MediaVest in 1992, after spending a year in the marketing department of Royal Mail. He spent two years at Abbott Mead Vickers before returning to MediaVest in 1997.
Juliet Slot, managing director of Haymarket Network, said: "This is another significant appointment in the senior management team at Haymarket Network and underlines our ambition to add further strategic and measurement capability to our existing offer.
"Neel's experience in brand and consumer insight as well as his breadth of knowledge of the media landscape will add huge value to our existing clients as well as winning new ones."
Haymarket Publishing also owns Brand Republic.