Today's business world is both local and global. As a result people and organisations are confronting complex and demanding challenges arising from the diversity of markets, business practices and organisational workings everywhere. This is made more complex by the different traditions, customs and aspirations of people around the globe.

At ESCP-EAP it is our view that globalisation does not mean standardisation. On the contrary, globalisation unleashes diversity on a grand scale. The successful management of diversity - the know-how to leverage it, perform with it, create value from it - hinges on an ability to understand complexities and to build relationships in the international arena.

ESCP-EAP European School of Management exists to educate future business leaders and managers with the knowledge, skills and mindsets to achieve world-class performance in the competitive global arena. To fulfil this mission we are involved in three types of activity:

• Postgraduate management education Masters, Specialised Masters, MBA, PhD
• Executive education custom programs for corporate universities, open enrolment programs for experienced professionals
• Applied management research and knowledge dissemination

These activities are led by our permanent faculty of 125 members in four countries, supported by 90 affiliate and visiting faculty, and a further 700 practitioners and adjunct experts across Europe. At home in Europe and open to the world, the School has developed academic alliances with 47 partners in 25 countries worldwide.

ESCP-EAP is different, and special, in having four totally integrated campuses: in Paris, Oxford, Madrid and Berlin. (In 2004 our UK campus will transfer from Oxford to London.) Uniquely, as a graduate school of management, ESCP-EAP is able to award three national degrees: a"Diplôme/Grad de Master Grande Ecole" in France, a "Diplom-Kaufmann/- frau" in Germany, and a Master in Management (validated as an MSc. degree) in the UK. It is one of only a handful of business schools in the world to have been accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, attesting to its high international standard of excellence.

ESCP-EAP campuses provide international students and companies with multiple gateways to Europe. Combining high-quality academic study in different countries and in different languages, learning in culturally diverse teams, organizing professional projects and practical experience in companies, providing intense interaction with faculty experts with diverse cultural backgrounds, ESCP-EAP delivers innovative and relevant business education for today's world.

The School's programme portfolio includes general management and specialised management courses for pre-experience and post-experience participants.

The EURO Working Group on Financial Modeling was founded in September 1986 in Lisbon. The primary field of interest for the Working Group can be described as "financial models that help to solve problems faced by financial decision makers in the firm, intermediaries and the investment community". From this the following objectives of the Working Group are distinguished:

• providing an international forum for exchange of information and experience on financial modeling;
• encouraging research in financial modeling (new techniques, methodologies, empirical studies, software, etc.);
• stimulating and strengthening the interaction between financial economic theory and the practice of financial decision making;
• cooperating and exchanging information with other universities and financial institutions throughout Europe.

The meetings of the Working Group are organised twice a year, in April and in November. Earlier meetings were held in Belgium, Curacao, Cyprus, Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Greece, Croatia, Poland and Spain. The meetings are attended by 80-100 members on average, most of them scientists but also representatives from the financial institutions.

About 400 members from 24 different countries (of which approximately 100 members constitute the more "active kernel" of the group).