Starting Jan. 2, 2012, Tom Greaves was appointed as the executive director of CyArk.

Tom has long been a supporter of CyArk and its mission to digitally preserve the world's cultural heritage. He began his career as a field engineer working for Schlumberger in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Oman. After graduating from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, he served as a business and technology researcher and analyst covering the emerging market for 3D design automation and technology.

Tom joins CyArk from SPAR Point Group, a company he founded in 2003, which performs research and analysis on the 3D laser scanning and related reality capture fields. His company also hosted the respected SPAR conferences in Houston, Kawasaki and Amsterdam. Tom recognized the importance of CyArk's heritage digital preservation work, and took the opportunity to include CyArk in his conferences and organize special sessions around 3D digital heritage preservation. Tom sold SPAR in 2009 and continued to direct the organization's activities through the end of 2011. Tom's background also includes two degrees in physics as well as his business degree from Sloan.

CyArk was established by Ben and Barbara Kacyra in 2003 as an initiative of the Kacyra Family Foundation to address the needs of digital preservation of our collective heritage. The CyArk project continued to grow and was spun off as an independent non-profit foundation in 2008. For the past several years, Ben Kacyra has served as managing director of CyArk. Ben will continue his work with CyArk as a board member and founder, expanding the board and CyArk's global partnerships, as well as devoting time to important strategic issues.

Ben Kacyra said, "I am thrilled to have Tom as our new executive director. As CyArk has continued to grow and take on exciting new projects, we decided it was time to bring on a full time executive director to help CyArk achieve its mission and the CyArk 500. The industry both respects and appreciates Tom's unflagging efforts to connect, educate and strengthen users and suppliers of 3D imaging solutions. His wide global network of contacts in industry, the academic community, public sector agencies and service providers is unique. I look forward to working closely with Tom and our team to build on CyArk's success and expand the reach of our digital preservation work."

Of his new position Tom said, "We have a remarkable opportunity in front of us to capture, conserve and help deliver a fresh experience of the world's most precious sites and assets. We aim to revivify these sites for our children and generations to come using the world's best and most compelling 3D imaging and modeling tools available. I am both thrilled and honored to join Ben Kacyra, Liz Lee, the rest of the CyArk team and our partners on the CyArk 500 mission."