Philippe Chouvou will join on February 16 allowing John Lloyd, who has been interim chief executive for the past three months, to move to a higher role.
Lloyd will take overall responsibility for IPT Holdings' French operations, which also include Netcollections and NP6, as interim chief executive of holding company Direct Excellence Limited.
DEL is defending a lawsuit brought by the sellers of NP6 in France. It bought NP6 in 2007 in an earn-out deal worth up to £7m, but when IPT Holdings hit trouble last year it attempted to renegotiate the earn-outs for NP6 and Directinet.
It has not been able to reach a settlement with the sellers of NP6, and two days ago it revealed that one of them, Stephane Zittoun, had left the IPT Holdings board.
At the same time IPT Holdings shares were suspended from the Alternative Investment Market. They last traded at a price of 2.38p, compared to a high of 240p in the middle of 2006.
The new Directinet chief executive, Chouvou, has 30 years of experience in the market research sector, having worked for major international companies such as Nielsen, IRI and NPD.
Martin Kiersnowski, a director of DEL, continues as president of Directinet and Netcollections.
IPT Holdings sold its UK businesses including Interactive Prospect Targeting in September 2008 to turnaround investment company Volvere for £1.3m in cash, with management including Lionel Thain and 80 staff moving across.