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ICANN announces a series of consulting agreements to enable and assist ICANN staff to move forward on a number of key objectives. ICANN has elected to use outside consultants for some transitory and temporary assignments in order to avoid the expense of hiring full time personnel or diverting existing staff from important operational and policy development support tasks. The relationships announced include the following:

• Offsite Human Resources Pty, Ltd is engaged to conduct a search for the position of Ombudsman, a position required under the revised ICANN By-Laws.
• Blackie McDonald, an Asia-Pacific public relations firm, based in Sydney; and Reputation Dynamics Ltd, a London based consulting firm, have been hired to assist with press relations on a part-time basis and to publicize the recent round of sponsored Top Level Domain applications.
• CompassRose International, Inc. a United States based firm specializing in the communications industry has been retained to develop strategies relating to globalization.
• Fredrick W. Cook & Company, Inc. has been retained to provide independent human resources advice.

In addition, ICANN is nearing agreement to secure the services of an independent evaluation firm; this is an important part of the impartial process in evaluating the recently announced sponsored top-level domain applications. More details are available at the following link:
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-19mar04.htm.