In his role at GMI he oversaw the dramatic growth of the company, helping it to expand globally.
Ricklefs said: "This is a great opportunity to be an integral part of building a breakthrough global company that competes fearlessly to create customer delight in all its markets. At Toluna the pieces are in place from which to build the best global supplier in the world.
"It is very clear to me that Toluna's success has been, and will continue to be, based upon three simple concepts: pride in innovation; recruiting staff with a hunger for innovation; and quite simply, doing things better."
Toluna focuses on developing online panel communities and survey technology. In the past 12 months it has launched 11 national community panels, which have pushed its reach to 27 panels and 1.6m members.