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

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