About Us

Trusting someone to guide you through your career choices is a huge leap of faith, so you need to know who you are dealing with. Let’s meet the team!

Our Culture

At Aspen Experience, culture isn’t just part of what we do – it’s the reason we exist.

We’re a young, energetic team on a mission: to solve youth unemployment, one internship at a time. We’re building bridges between education and opportunity, helping students and young professionals travel, live, and work abroad with confidence.

We understand the pressure of starting a career – because we’ve been there too. That’s why we’re more than just a placement agency. We’re fast, responsive, and genuinely involved in every step of the journey.

We believe that hard work should be meaningful, and support should feel human. Whether it’s helping someone land their first role or expand their professional network across borders, we do it with heart, hustle, and a whole lot of fun.

Together, we’re creating a culture that’s bold, global, and deeply committed to changing lives – one experience at a time.

Our team

Marius Gheboianu, Romania

Chief Executive Officer

With a vast experience in multiple industries, transitioning from finance to interior design, luxury hospitality, and ultimately entrepreneurship and business management, Marius leads the company. Overseeing all processes and departments, he is always available to talk to the team, our participants, and our partners. Marius believes that success only requires two attributes: to really want and truly believe in what you do.

Claudia Valenzuela, Mexico

Director of Sales & Marketing

Claudia has a background in luxury hospitality, and she is the founder of our social media presence and interviewing system. Having traveled across the world and learnt from professionals with different cultural backgrounds, Claudia has developed the interpersonal skills that enables her to establish a successful report with our participants, by sharing her own experience during the multiple J1 programs she has done. 

Tiago Fernandes, Portugal

Human Resources &
Organizational Development Partner

Having a background in human resources management, Tiago has studied and worked in Switzerland for one of the most prestigious hospitality school’s career center. He has always enjoyed guiding students through their career choices. At Aspen Experience Tiago manages the visa paperwork and the placement process for our participants, ensuring their personal career development goals are met.

Deon Lamb

Placements Operations Manager

Deon brings a background in Culinary Arts and a postgraduate qualification in entrepreneurship, combining hands-on expertise with a structured, people-focused approach to operations. His experience in team leadership and U.S. program coordination has equipped him with the skills to manage a variety of internal processes and provide effective support to both our staff and participants. At Aspen Experience, Deon oversees every step of the placement journey, ensuring a smooth experience that empowers the team and helps candidates succeed.

Dianne Navarro, Philippines

Business Development Team Leader

With a background in sales and marketing, Dianne fit right into our team, bringing enthusiasm and a lot of professionalism. Her love for travelling and learning about different cultures helped her build solid foundations with both our participants and partners. As a person who also participated in cultural exchange programs, Dianne is always eager to help and guide others achieve their goals and enjoy their J1 program to the fullest.

Francesca Novosel, Romania

Senior Program Coordinator

Having a deep passion for American culture, Francesca did two J1 programs in the US. These experiences had a profound impact on her personal and professional development and shaped who she is today. She embraced these opportunities, learning and growing along the way. Francesca is a dedicated team member, thrilled to help others fulfil their career dreams, and this shows in the way she engages with our participants.

Our Vision

To solve youth unemployment, one internship at a time.

We strive to become an international company which places students and young professionals from all over the world in the working and living environments that helps build a successful career.

Our Mission

To help our participants travel, live and work abroad.

We are committed to providing the best service and being remembered for helping them acquire the technical and soft skills, and develop their professional network.

Our Core Values

We are not just another placement agency. What differentiates us?

We are young and fun

We always tell our participants that there’s no need to Mr/Sir/Mam us up. We are young, we are close to your age, and we encourage you to see us as your friends, rather than just your agents. In fact, we have met many of our past participants in person, went out with them, traveled with them, became friends with them.

We understand your pain

Our entire team has done the J1 programs themselves, many of us multiple times over, or have worked with the program for a long time, guiding other participants through their career choices. We understand the pain you are going through, we know how it feels, and we are here to share the mistakes we’ve made, and the lessons we’ve learnt, so you don’t have to go through the same bumpy road.

We are available and responsive

There’s nothing more frustrating than talking to a chat bot, or a consultant that does not respond to your messages. We understand that. All our team members, from junior level to executive management, share their personal phone numbers and keep a close WhatsApp communication with all our participants. Someone will always answer to you. Even during the weekends. Even during holidays.

We are fast and reliable

When we promise we’ll do something, we will get it done. And we will get it done fast. We are always pushing all applications forward, constantly sending follow-up emails to our partners and visa Sponsors, making sure your application does not get stuck for a second. In fact, it’s likely we will push you from behind, too. Our interests are aligned, and we want to see you start your career as soon as possible.

We are involved

We never hide behind a contract, and although most of our contractual responsibilities end when you get the visa approved, you will hear from us during your internship just as much as you have during the application process. We always encourage our participants to keep in touch with us, and ask for our help in dealing with conflicts, finding housing, traveling or transferring to another property. Think of us as your career consultants. We are here to help, and we mean it!

A word from the CEO

At Aspen Experience we build dreams. We create lifelong memories.

We help you travel abroad for an experience that keeps on changing the lives of every single participant that ever pursued our programs. It’s so much more than an internship. Career opportunities are amazing, yes. You gain professional experience at the highest luxury hospitality level, yes. You train with a global hotel chain, which will prove very useful once you finish your program, yes. But the biggest accomplishment you don’t even see it now. That is networking! That’s what our programs offer: lifelong memories created among a vast network of international friends, and professionals.

Whether you choose to travel to the mountains, to the luxurious Aspen resort, skiing its endless slopes in the winter, and exploring its amazing hiking trails in the summer. Or to the sunny beaches in south Florida, and the coast of California, enjoying the warm weather all year long. Or you prefer the glamorous big city life and countless skyscrapers in New York City, Miami, or Atlanta. Whether you train with a big-brand hotel, or a high-end country club. Whether you find your opportunity easy or challenging.

Whether you want to save money or spend it all travelling. Whether you miss home or enjoy freedom. One thing is for sure: you will meet lots of people, from lots of different countries, which will change your life forever! Many will become your friends for life, and you will get to visit them in their home country. And others will remain great work connections, which will turn out to be very useful in the future.

Now that’s the most important thing you will take out of this internship! An amazing network of beautiful people and beautiful lifelong memories!

Talk to us and we will make it all come true!

Cheers,

Marius

What's In It For You?

The biggest result we can help our participants achieve is building a successful career in the hospitality industry at a global level. We do this by helping them secure an internship with one of the top employers in the industry, which allows them to gain exposure to luxury hospitality, accumulate experience and build a network of high-performing individuals, enhance their technical and soft skills, and build the confidence to step up to higher management positions.

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