About us

Ellen was born in Amsterdam but raised inTokyo, Japan and Oxford, UK and currently divides her time between the Cape Town office, The Netherlands and New York city.   She holds a degree in communication management and has a background in marketing and sales.
Ellen started House o Orange in 2000 and is sole owner.
She is married and has 3 grown children and raised her children to be fully bilingual with the help of au pairs. Apart from being with her family, Ellen likes to foster puppies and enjoys donating time and money to South African animal rescue organisations, travelling, reading and watching movies and series.
Ellen speaks Dutch and English fluently, some French and very basic Japanese.
She can be reached at ellen@house-o-orange.nl

Josie joined House o Orange in the spring of 2019 as interim Manager to fill in for our Senior Program Manager Annelies but she continues to be part of our team for a little bit longer. Josie has a background in African Studies from Leiden University and has lived and worked in the West-African region before. She is a mother to a beautiful baby girl born in the fall of 2019. She loves to travel, enjoys dance and yoga. She can be reached at  josie@house-o-orange.nl 

Annelies has a degree in American Studies from the University of Groningen. She interned for us over the summer of 2006 and started working for House o Orange full time in February 2007 and has never looked back. Annelies was an au pair herself in the US and has a lot of knowledge and expertise with regard to the au pair program. Annelies speaks English and Dutch. Annelies is our Senior Program Manager and she is also responsible for our outbound program. She currently lives in Wassenaar with her partner and her beautiful baby boy who was born in 2019. Annelies loves to travel and she especially enjoys travelling to the US to see her former host family. In her free time Annelies likes to do yoga, read and keep fit by going to the gym.
She can be reached at annelies@house-o-orange.nl

Sabine has a background in tourism and started working for the House o Orange office in 2018 as a Junior Program Manager and recently joined the team permanently and was promoted to Program Manager. She lives in nearby Pijnacker together with Chris and their lovely 1,5 yr old Daughter Noëlle. Sabine is always in for a chat and can help you with all your questions. She loves to sing, do crossfit, travelling, cook and watching movies and series. She works on Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays and can be reached at sabine@house-o-orange.nl.