About Us

Jennifer Hockley moved to Bern from Canada in February 2001 with her husband. Jennifer has a Masters in Business Administration degree and, prior to this move, worked for 10 years in management in a large university teaching hospital.

Jennifer has remained very busy exploring all that Switzerland has to offer, as well as fundraising for charity, making many friends, participating in a variety of groups and activities, learning both High German and Bäärndüütsch, and establishing a happy life for her British-Canadian family. In 2003 their son was born, in 2004 they moved from Bern to a small town on the edge of the Emmental region, and in 2005 their daughter was born. Now, with children of kindergarten and primary school age, Jennifer has experience with both the expat private school system, and the local Swiss school system, and a variety of activities for parents and children in and around Bern.

Throughout the many highs and occasional lows, Jennifer has remaind convinced that Bern is one of the best places in the world to live. She hopes that you too will be happy here.

Paula loves Switzerland and feels very integrated in her life here. After graduating from university in Michigan, she moved to Zurich for five years then moved to San Francisco with her Swiss husband. Paula and her family happily moved to Switzerland in 2006 and she has been busy exploring all the wonderful aspects of life in Switzerland, going into partnership with Jennifer with Ready...Steady...Bern! as well as starting up her own interior design firm again (www.elaninteriors.ch).

In San Francisco, Paula worked in an architectural/interior design/planning office, then esablished a partnership business in interior design and real estate home staging. She has also worked as Administrative Director and Teacher of English as a Second Language in a private art university in San Francisco. In her free time, Paula loves to hange out with family and friends, play her harp, renovate property and furniture, dance, travel, cook, hike, ski, garden, do arts and crafts, entertain and swim. Paula's native language is English, but she's fluent in Swiss German, High German, as well as proficient in French and some Spanish.

Paula and her family are the proud owners of both American and Swiss passports. Welcome to the good life here!