About Us

Lucy and her partner, Rens, started Sunshine Au Pair at the beginning of 2012. She graduated with a degree in Business English and had tremendous experience working in the hospitality industry in China; from a front desk receptionist to an office secretary. After five years, she took a gap year to experience life abroad. In the last eleven years, she has built her one-person business to now, a team of ten. She started from zero and successfully established a new life in the Netherlands. Rens and Lucy have two girls who are seven and nine years old. Lucy works in our office in The Hague. She enjoys cooking, working, and outings with kids. She is the backbone of Sunshine Au Pair. She looks forward to supporting host families and au pairs with her years of knowledge and experiences in the industry, aiming to make these exchange years enriching for all.

Sally came to the Netherlands when her husband received a job transfer fifteen years ago. She has more than ten years of experience working with customers in various sectors including IT, logistics and warehouse, corporate gifts and B2C e-commerce. She has also ventured into network marketing, mentored a team of business owners, and taught a variety of personal developments and leadership topics. She now supervises the company’s operations and facilitates interactions between EU au pairs and families. During her free time, she loves reading, spending time with her family and baking. Her favourite Dutch snack is stroopwafel and she will not miss her annual oliebollen treat! She lives in The Hague with her husband, their three children and their dog.

Elske was born and raised in the Netherlands. For the last 7 years, she travelled throughout Asia, worked as a teacher in Ho Chi Minh city, and cycled from Vietnam to India. Now she lives in a small and beautiful jungle village in India. She loves cycling, cats, playing piano, drinking tea, writing stories, and teaching language! Elske hosts Culture First, our course about Dutch culture. In a few sessions she and the au pairs dive into the world of Dutch food, traditions and going around. She is also a backup for interviewing our EU candidates, confirming the match between our host families and European au pairs, and follow-up on the stay of our European au pairs.’

Barbara is a British citizen but has been living an international life for the last two decades in several European countries. She came to Sunshine Au Pair at first as an English language teacher, offering courses to au pairs who were keen to improve their language skills as part of their experience. After enjoying working with the girls so much and gaining an insight into the lives of au pairs and their host families, Barbara was ready to become more involved in the business and is now a program manager for Sunshine. Barbara ran her own successful language school business prior to joining Sunshine and in previous roles, has worked as a marketing manager for a FTSE 100 company, a website usability consultant and testing manager. Barbara’s heart lies in helping people and talking through their individual needs and so she is looking forward to meeting and helping many new host families on their au pair journey. Barbara currently lives in beautiful Norway with her husband and two big kids (14 and 10).

Grace is a registered nurse by profession. She has more than ten years of experience in B2B and B2C sales and account management in fintech and telecommunication industries. She leads our screening and recruitment team by managing a database of au pair profiles. She facilitates the host families and au pairs placement processes by suggesting suitable au pairs, and arranges their interviews. On top of that, she ensures au pairs’ visa collection happens smoothly and prepare the au pairs before they arrive in the Netherlands. She is now in her new chapter of her life as a first-time mom and happily enjoying her baby. She loves to organize travel adventures with her husband and daughter. In her free time, she find joy in discovering and trying different recipes, baking, and reinvent local Filipino desserts.

Bruna is our Program Coordinator (Int) and the representative of Latin American au pairs, especially Brazilians. She accompanies our au pairs throughout their exchange year by keeping in touch with the regularly through follow-up meetings. She enjoys listening to their stories and is intrigued with different cultures.  She was an au pair in the Netherlands in 2008/09 and then pursued her PhD in Sociology specializing in Brazilian au pair trajectories in the Netherlands. In 2011 she started her teaching career as a high school teacher. She is now teaching in a university. In her free time, she loves expressing herself through tribal fusion dance and spending quiet time with her close friends. 

Mona has 5 years of experience as an Au Pair in Europe (Denmark, Norway and Netherlands) which provided her with relevant knowledge and firsthand experience of the European Au Pair program. She works as Sunshine Au Pair’s back-office assistant that plans Sunshine’s first video talk, follows-up on the reference checks, assists on administration work, and manages Sunshine’s social media platforms. With Mona’s innate positive and cheerful personality, she embodies the company’s goal of what a successful Au Pair experience should be, and with her help, she can deliver Sunshine’s support to the Au Pairs and host families. She loves to sing, dance and travel. She is looking forward to meeting all the new Au Pair applicants who would like to join the Au Pair program, and to share her experiences and knowledge with them.

Francis graduated in Information Technology more than a decade ago. Since then, she has not only gained knowledge and experience in that field, she has also ventured into starting a small business in 2021. Before Francis joined Sunshine, she had worked 12 years as an academic coordinator and registrar in a school in the Philippines. Through her entrepreneurial experience, she was given the opportunity to also teach business related subjects at the school. Francis is always willing to lend a hand to people around her. Active in her community and has tremendous experience in organizing and managing events for good causes, Francis’s motto of life is to be a positive influence to those around her. She is passionate to use her God-given talents to benefit others. She now works to conduct quality interviews and to support host families to find their au pair as she eases into her role as a placement coordinator at Sunshine.

Russell will be taking on the role of ​Administrative Assistant with Sunshine Au Pair. He will be in charge of consolidating Au Pair documents and handling Au Pair queries. He is looking forward to working with Sunshine, as it fits with his bubbly personality, his interest in trying new things, and his sense of adventure. Russell is a graphic artist, and he loves to draw and sketch in his free time. He also has a sticker business in the Philippines, which is his personal passion project.