John Craig, formerly head of innovation at the Cabinet Office, starts work as director of the "official" Innovation Exchange on January 1 2008. John handled the tendering process under which we at the Open Innovation Exchange bid for the contract, and as I've written here, was very helpful and sympathetic to our approach - while sticking to all the challenging procedures. John has seen the innovation exchange idea through from the start, and this - together with experience outside the Civil Service - should give him a great start.