Ruoss will be responsible for coordinating the company's marketing and development programmes across the business, and will report directly to Anne Hedde, president and group chief executive officer.
Prior to joining Lightspeed Research, Ruoss was senior vice-president of sales strategies at Bank of America and was director of corporate strategies at MBNA, before the two businesses merged.
Hedde said: "In his tenure at Lightspeed [Ruoss] has been very successful with clients leading the Ultimate Consumer Panel and we want to capitalise further on his strengths across the entire company.
"This appointment further galvanises our investment in our brand, innovation strategies and the momentum of our product portfolio."
In May, the company appointed Michael Gazala, senior vice-president of Forrester Research, to the position of chief executive in North America.