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A good one is worth his weight in Google!

Lawyer search ends for Google
By Richard Waters in San Francisco, Financial Times, Oct. 31, 2005

Google on Monday hired an experienced lawyer and international policy activist to defend its increasingly controversial efforts to extend the reach of its internet search engine.

Elliot Schrage, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, arrives at the internet company in the midst of a dispute with book publishers and authors over its ambitious plan to digitise the contents of a number of leading university libraries and make the information searchable online.

The dispute – the most acrimonious the company has faced over its growing influence on the web – is a sign of the anxiety it has started to create in other quarters of the media industry.

Mr Schrage, who was named vice president of global communications and public affairs and will report to Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said his role would be "to explain the steps Google is taking to improve the accessibility and usefulness of the world's information to people everywhere".

Mr Schrage also comes with impeccable credentials for a company that has declared part of its mission to be "making the world a better place". As senior vice-president of global affairs at Gap, he led the US clothing company's efforts to bring better working practices to its suppliers' factories. He also taught a course on the social consequences of globalisation as an adjunct professor at Columbia University Business School.

The appointment fills a gap in Google's senior executive ranks that has been vacant since the departure last year of Cindy McCaffrey, vice-president of marketing. While Ms McCaffrey was a former journalist and public relations professional, Mr Schrage's background appeared to point to the more central role Google expects to play in debates over public policy as it assumes a more central role in online activity.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9878907/