Congratulations. It’s official, Assumpta Aneas, SIETAR Europa member from Spain, has successfully defended her thesis, Competencias interculturales en la empresa at the University of Barcelona. In her work, she developed and tested an intercultural skills model focused on Spanish organizations and multicultural workers. To date, hers is the only research of intercultural competence in the Spanish workplace.

In addition Dr. Aneas has completed her editing of the Castilian version of Global Competence.  Competencia Global: 50 actividades de formación para lograr éxito en negocios internationales will appear 1n 2004 from Diaz de Santos Publishers in Madrid, and be distributed in Spanish- speaking countries worldwide. This project stemmed from her teaching of Career Adviser, Social Workers and HHRR Consulters who were assisting companies with hiring and sucessfullly integrating minorities into the Spanish workplace.

   Patricia Glasel (SIETAR France)

Patricia Glasel is a Cross-cultural Training Consultant for all the major companies working in that field (Cendant, IOR, Berlitz). A French national, Ms GLASEL has been living in Chicago, Illinois, for the past three years and has recently returned to France in summer 2003. While in Chicago, she trained managers going to leave abroad and conducted classes for the Alliance Française.

Prior to this, Ms Glasel worked in Madrid, Spain, where she established and managed a children’s fashion business, working with Indonesian suppliers. In addition, she served as a sales manager for a computer company in Paris, were she was responsible for sales and customer relations for an import- export company raw materials between Africa and Europe. She also lived and worked in Bangkok for the French trade Commission at the French Embassy in Thailand.

She received her M.B.A. degree in International Business from the Institut Supérieur du Commerce in Paris, France and earned additional credits in Psychology of training and Development, Organizational behavior, Public speaking at Northwestern University in Chicago. In total, Ms Glasel has lived in 11 countries. In addition to her native French, she is fluent in English and Spanish.

For about twelve years I have been leading international projects and intercultural teams on pan-European level. I worked with the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium), with the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, France) and with the European Centre for Nature Conservation (Tilburg, the Netherlands).

I studied International Politics (MA) and Social Psychology (Certificate). I continue my education with the courses in Cultural Anthropology and Intercultural Communication.

At present, I - Belarussian national and native Russian speaker - am settling down in Brussels and establishing my own business in the intercultural field, which is focussed on cultural specifics of Russian speaking countries. I'm interested in cross-cultural research, consulting work and training.

Joining SIETAR Europe, I expect to get more involved into discussion on latest trends in the intercultural field. I expect to establish new contacts and partnerships and to generate common project proposals.