Ten of the eighteen people who work at Larchcombe are named here. The others, our coordinators, our vetting officers, the back office and the duty consultants, prefer not to be, which in this business is understandable.
Caroline Rendle
Managing Director · with the agency since 2010
Caroline is Dorothy Thayer’s granddaughter and the third generation of the family to run the agency. She grew up in the flat above the office on Tarrant Place, read history in Edinburgh, and spent two years in London as assistant to the house manager of a large household in Belgravia before joining Larchcombe as a consultant in 2010.
She ran the agency’s temporary and seasonal placements from 2014, became deputy managing director in 2019 and managing director on July 1, 2023. She still places a number of house managers herself, and takes the duty line one night a week, usually Thursdays.
crendle@larchcombe.com
Joan Rendle
Chair · with the agency since 1979
Joan joined her mother at the agency in 1979, after six years teaching elementary school in Tacoma, and was managing director from 1987 to 2023. She opened the Swiss service in 1987 with a single housekeeper’s placement on the lake above Zürich, introduced the twenty-year confidentiality agreement in 2004 and wrote the first edition of the Residence Code with Elspeth Tolley in 2011.
She has chaired the agency since July 2023 and is in the office most Tuesdays, when she reads every file opened the week before.
Neil Fairbanks
Director, Placements · with the agency since 2008
Neil went into service as a footman in a London household in 1991 and was a butler in England and on the East Coast for fifteen years. He joined Larchcombe in 2008.
He leads the placement of house managers, butlers and estate security staff, and teaches the butlers’ module of the Larchcombe course, which he will tell you is mostly about doors.
nfairbanks@larchcombe.com
Alison Kemble
Head of Family Services · with the agency since 2012
Alison was a nanny for eleven years, with two families in Seattle and one in London, and a newborn care specialist for four more before she joined the agency in 2012.
She leads the placement of nannies, governesses and newborn care specialists, and meets every nanny we put forward before any family does.
akemble@larchcombe.com
Beatrice Ferrand
Consultant, Zürich and Geneva · with the agency since 2016
Beatrice was born in Lausanne and spent nineteen years in hotel housekeeping in Geneva and the Bernese Oberland, the last seven as executive housekeeper, before she joined Larchcombe in 2016 to run its Swiss placements with our licensed partner.
She divides her year between Geneva and Seattle, works in French, German and English, and looks after households that live on both sides of the Atlantic.
bferrand@larchcombe.com
Diane Okoro
Head of Vetting · with the agency since 2015
Diane spent nine years in background screening for a firm of employment lawyers before joining Larchcombe in 2015.
She checks the identity, right to work, references and history of every candidate we put forward, and signs each file before it goes to a household.
dokoro@larchcombe.com
Martin Hendry
Consultant, Estate Security · with the agency since 2018
Martin served twenty-two years in law enforcement in Washington, the last eight in executive protection, and was head of security for a private estate on the Eastside before joining the agency in 2018.
He places estate managers of security, residential security officers and drivers trained in protective driving, and reviews the security arrangements of any household that asks.
mhendry@larchcombe.com
Elspeth Tolley
Head of Training · with the agency since 2009
Elspeth was housekeeper to a family on Capitol Hill for twenty-six years. She joined Larchcombe in 2009, wrote the Residence Code with Joan Rendle in 2011 and has edited every edition since.
She runs the Larchcombe course, the agency’s training for the staff it places, from the classroom on the top floor of Tarrant Place.
etolley@larchcombe.com
Kathleen Strickland
Consultant, Companions · with the agency since 2014
Kathleen was a care manager for older adults for fourteen years, arranging help at home for families who lived too far away to arrange it themselves.
She joined the agency in 2014 to build its service of companions for older clients, and has placed most of the companions working for us today.
kstrickland@larchcombe.com
Sanjay Mehra
Finance and Operations · with the agency since 2017
Sanjay joined Larchcombe in 2017 from the accounts department of a family office in Bellevue.
He looks after the agency’s accounts, household payroll for the families who ask us to run it, and the Register, the agency’s record of its households and staff.
smehra@larchcombe.com