Marion Ruhland
Marion is German and came to Chile in 2002. Her plan was to stay for half a year, but as she got to know people and country, she decided to stay. In November 2003, Marion founded the agency Chile Inside and has since been managing it very successfully. Before her time in Chile and after completing her studies in Business and Finance, she worked as a financial advisor in Private Banking at Deutsche Bank. In parallel to her work as the founder of Chile Inside, Marion managed the Latin America business activities of a large American financial services company and got to know the whole of Latin America through many trips. She has also travelled to almost all European countries, Australia and parts of Asia and Africa. During 2009, she increasingly withdrew from her commitments in the financial sector and has since been putting all her efforts into Chile Inside in order to ensure continuous company growth and the development of further programs. Marion speaks German, Spanish and English fluently and also knows some French.
Julia Federmann
Julia comes from the southern part of Germany. Having learned English and Spanish in school, she became interested in other countries and their cultures. She studied international business and worked later for several years in a multinational company where she had her first contact to South America. Julia loves to travel and on her first trip to Chile she knew that this wasn’t going to be her last time in this beautiful and amazing country. Since May 2015 Julia is part of our team in client support. She speaks German, English and Spanish.
Rahel Leibundgut
Rahel is Swiss and came to Latin America for the first time in 2002 after participating in a volunteer project in an orphanage in Guatemala. The volunteer trip was followed by a trip across Latin America to Argentina, where she stayed for a while and worked in a hostel. She has traveled to most of the countries where our programs take place and has participated in several volunteer programs in Europe. So Rahel knows the concerns of our participants very well from her personal experience. After studying history, archeology and art history at the University of Zurich, she finally decided to emigrate to Chile, where she had stayed time and time again in the ten years before. Rahel speaks German, Spanish, English and French.
Esperanza Fuster
Esperanza was born in the south of the country and has lived in many different Chilean cities. She came to Santiago – where she likes it a lot – to study engineering at the University of Andrés Bello. She has been able to gain lots of experience with foreign participants, as her family is one of our most loyal host families, and Esperanza has therefore already shared her home with many host siblings from all over the world. In February 2011, she obtained her university title and has been working at Chile Inside since July 2011. Esperanza supports us with the administration and organization of the stays in Chile. She enjoys meeting people from other countries and getting to know the world’s different cultures and learning from them. Due to her friendly personality and her unfailing good mood she is appreciated by colleagues and customers alike. She speaks Spanish and some English.
Vera Neeten
Vera is German and has always loved foreign languages, so she took Spanish in school. After completing a year abroad in Spain while studying communication science at RWTH Aachen, it quickly became clear that South America should be the next step. So, in 2005 she came to Santiago for the first time to do an internship. And well, after completing her studies, she packed up again to live in Chile. In the meantime, she has founded her German-Chilean family in Santiago. Vera is a big outdoor fan and so in exactly the right place here in Chile - there is hardly a national park between the Atacama Desert and Patagonia, which she has not had under her hiking boots yet. After many years working in a local tour operator, Vera came to Chile Inside. She is in charge of our Marketing and speaks fluent German, Spanish, English and some French.
Melanie von Senger Loeper
Melanie has a very international background. She is Swiss and was born in Munich, Germany. After an eight-year stay in Paraguay, she came to Chile in 1985, where she completed her studies in economics. This was followed by a 6-year working stay in Switzerland, where she worked mostly in the catering industry. From 1996 she then ran a small hotel on Lake Ranco, in the south of Chile. A few years ago she moved to the capital Santiago de Chile. Melanie is fluent in German, Spanish and English. She works as an assistant at Chile Inside supporting the team and our participants whereever necesary.