Hi everyone,
Interesting discussion you have going here. We certainly appreciate those of you who have stuck to the facts and come to the defense of Teachers Latin America because of your own personal experiences. However, I guess I cannot blame PsyGuy for believing his version of the story. I am Mark Webber, Guy's business partner in Teachers Latin America, and a career educator for the past 26 years. I have been working with Guy for the past 4 years and we are in our 5th year if you count the year that we took to plan our business model and figure out how to approach the Latin American market where we both live and work.

To set some things straight, Teachers Latin America represents most of the top international schools in Mexico (ASF CDMX, GDL, Monterrey, Westhill, Humanitree, to name a few) as well as some of the top bilingual schools. We only represent one language school, the Anglo, because they are attached to some international schools that we represent; Churchill School and Churchill College. However, rest assured that our main market is international schools. We also represent many of the top schools in Central America such as Metropolitan School, Discovery School, Colegio Interamericano and are starting to get a reputable list of client schools in South America as well.

Some of the main reasons that Guy and I started (or restarted for those of you who know Guy from his days as a teacher trainer) our company was to represent international schools, exclusively in Latin America, as well as the opinion that PsyGuy and many others have about recruiters. We felt that schools, and more importantly students in Latin America needed and deserved quality representation. We believe in visiting schools, looking people in the eye, shaking hands and doing business the old fashioned way, with respect and honor. We pay our taxes and we follow the labor laws of our host country and we would never pack up and leave someone out in the cold. In fact, even though it is true that the schools pay us, most of our contracts do not entail us collecting a fee for each teacher that we get hired. We work on a flat rate, year round hiring contract because our schools trust us and have the confidence in us that we will do right by them. I would also like to add that we do not represent schools that we feel that do not honor their contracts or treat teachers properly. We may never get rich doing things this way, but hey, thats ok. We are not out to get rich. We are out to earn a living like everyone else and create win-win situations wherever we can. We are building our reputation one school at a time and that is fine by us.

I would like to add that Guy and I still work in the communities that we serve, setting up substitute teacher programs, trying to find jobs for Otros Dreamers, those who have been deported from the USA, and with the Mexican academic debate community. I volunteer much of my time to Team Mexico and Guy covers for me every summer. We do this not only because it connects us to the community in many ways that are mutually beneficial but because we feel strongly that giving back to the community is an important pillar of our business.

Also, to answer the question that LibbyA asked in the first place, we have just returned from the Tri-Association conference where many new schools were excited to hear of the success of the first year of our Houston and Mexico City fairs and many more are planning to attend this year in addition to ASF CDMX, ASF Monterrey, etc. Last year we had 17 schools representing around 25 campuses from Mexico, Central and South America. This year, we are planning for at least 25 schools.

Finally, for PsyGuy, we understand your concerns about recruiters and we hope that we are addressing those concerns and building trust for those of you who may have gotten burned in the past. I would just like to invite you if you are ever in Mexico City, where I live, or Guadalajara, where Guy lives, to look us up and lets go have a coffee or a beer together. We would really like that.

Thanks for anyone who has read this far and shout out to ihoward and chillagringa who had our backs. We are honored by your trust and will work hard to continue to deserve it.
Sincerely,
Mark Webber
26 year Career Educator
Director of Recruitment
Teachers Latin America