Strengthens Company’s Leadership Position by adding Support Staff Services-

Sydney, Australia (January 29, 2004) — Aquent, a global professional services firm that delivers total staffing, executive search, and outsourcing solutions in the marketing, communications, and creative fields, today announced its acquisition of Sydney-based recruitment firm, Pacific Rim Personnel.

“This acquisition is a key step in Aquent’s growth strategy in the Asia Pacific region. The deal adds significant revenue to our business and allows for excellent opportunities to cross sell our services. More importantly, it gives Aquent the strategic advantage of offering our clients a total staffing solution,” said Greg Savage, CEO of Aquent Asia Pacific. “Our business now allows clients to deal with highly specialised Consultants in each specific discipline—Creative, Marketing, Advertising, Media, PR and now Marcomm Support.”

Mr Savage said the acquisition combines the strength of Aquent’s global network of Creative, Marketing and Communications candidates, with Pacific Rim Personnel’s leadership position in Marcomm Office Support in Sydney.

“Aquent will now use this acquisition as a platform to expand our Marcomm Support services right across our offices in the Asia Pacific region,” explained Mr Savage.

Pacific Rim Personnel’s Managing Director, Micheline Bell-Booth and Account Executive, Katie Pinnick will join Aquent in Sydney and continue to foster their existing relationships with Talent and Clients.

“Their focus on customer service, enthusiasm and commitment to long term business relationships means that both Ms Bell-Booth and Ms Pinnick  will fit in perfectly,” commented Mr Savage.

“We saw Aquent’s acquisition of Pacific Rim Personnel as the perfect synergy for our company,” said Micheline Bell-Booth. “New and existing clients now have a broader array of specialties from which to choose and a larger Talent pool to service them.

On a personal level, Aquent has provided me with a tremendous career opportunity and I look forward to contributing to their success in expanding their Marcomm Support division.”

Micheline Bell-Booth has over eight years experience within both the human resources and recruitment industries. In 1999, she launched Pacific Rim Personnel, a boutique styled recruitment agency specialising in Office Support.

For more information, contact Greg Savage, CEO Asia Pacific on +61 2 9264 1888 or email gsavage@aquent.com.

About Aquent:
Aquent (aquent.com) is a global professional services firm that delivers total staffing, consulting and outsourcing solutions for Marketing, Communications and Creative. Through a network of nearly seventy offices in sixteen countries, Aquent services in the areas of print and web design and production; advertising and media, marketing, public relations and marcomm office support. In its fifteen-year history Aquent has made nearly 400,000 matches of independent professionals with client companies worldwide. The company’s Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Sydney with other offices in Melbourne, and Brisbane in Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul in Korea, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya in Japan; and Mumbai, India.