Tom Barker has been appointed chair of the Digital Futures Initiatives at the OCAD Univ, effective January/12. Barker is an Australian designer, technologist and entrepreneur, well-known for organizational and leadership skills in assembling academic design and commercial consortia. Most recently he was the pan-faculty professor of architecture, innovation and design at the Univ of Technology Sydney. He is director of the research Centre for Contemporary Design Practices and head of the UrbanAid research group. Barker's partner, Marie O'Mahony, has also joined OCAD's faculty of design as a professor. O'Mahony specializes in the impact of technology on textiles and