Consultants & Trainers

Steven Ferry

Steven Ferry

Chairman Steven Ferry was born in the South of England, where he attended private schools and Art College. He worked both in the hospitality industry and in private service in England during the 1980s, before training as a butler in England and then working as one in the United States. In the early 1990s he established the International Guild of Traditional Butlers and wrote the basic manual on how to butle. By the mid-1990s, he had left private service to focus on his writing career.

Drawing on his early years as an educator in England and Florida, he has published three textbooks for the profession: “The British Butlers Bible,” “Butlers and Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals,” and “Hotel Butlers, the Great Service Differentiators”, and began to train butlers in private households. He also consulted employers about their domestic needs and occasionally assisted with personnel procurement when requested. He subsequently broadened his campaign to improve service standards using the butler model, by providing training and consulting services to the hospitality industry.

In 2003, he introduced the Spa Butler as a resource for hotels and resorts with spas, to assist them in bringing about the ultimate spa experience for guests. In 2006 he introduced rating standards to the hospitality industry for butlers in hotels.  In 2007, he introduced the concept of the Guest from Hell and helped establish the HotelSafeguard program for hotels. Mr. Ferry has lectured about butlers and butling at a number of venues, including Harvard University.

Mr. Ferry currently trains butlers and other household and hospitality employees on the butler model of service in private households and estates, hotels, resorts, spas and private villas. He is on the Editorial Board of Hotel Business Magazine and writes for a variety of industry trade magazines and newsletters.

Prior to working in the hospitality profession, Mr. Ferry was a professor of education and worked in the non-profit sector in various capacities. He has published close to 20 books, as well as hundreds of articles & photographs for major US publishers and corporations.

Industry Books
The British Butlers’ Bible, Mansion Publishing, 2001
Butlers and Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals, Imprint Books, 2002
Hotel Butlers, The Great Service Differentiators, Booksurge Publishing, 2004
Serving the Wealthy, Volumes I and II, Createspace, 2016

Professional Affiliations
Founder, International Guild of Traditional Butlers, 1992
Executive Member, International Guild of Professional Butlers (past)
Founder, The International Institute of Modern Butlers
Visiting Professor, The International Butler Academy (past)
Editorial Board, Hotel Business Magazine

Amer A. Vargas

Amer A. Vargas

Amer A. Vargas graduated with a Tourism Degree specializing in hotel management from CETT (Center for Tourism Studies) in Barcelona and spent the following decade in the service industry. Beginning as a waiter and then moving up to supervisor in high-end restaurants, he was next made responsible for raising service standards through staff training programs. After receiving further training as a butler, he worked as a butler and valet in private service as well as in hotels in England and Europe. During this time period, he translated the best-selling industry texts Butlers & Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals and Hotel Butlers, The Great Service Differentiators into Spanish.

As President, Mr. Vargas is responsible for making the technology of butling available in private residences and hotels around the world, particularly in the Spanish-speaking countries. He provides consultation, placement, and training services in these countries. Currently he is creating butler training materials in the Spanish language.

Budi Prihardjanto

Mr. Budi Prihardjanto has over 21 years experience working in hotels and resorts across Asia and the Middle East. He began his career as a butler and moved up to Butler Trainer, Head Butler, Room Division Manager, Human Resources Director, General Manager, and finally Area Manager, before returning again to the Institute to engage in his favorite activity of training: He loves to share and to motivate the team during his trainings.
Budi has worked and trained at the Regent, Rosewood, One & Only, Banyan Tree, Ritz Carlton and other hotels and five-star resorts.
As Vice President, Asia, Mr. Prihardjanto provides consultation and training for hotels and resorts and other service industries, and placement services for hotels and resorts.

Ms. Monica Ferry

Monica Ferry

Ms. Monica Ferry was born and raised in Holland. Speaking English and Dutch fluently, French and German acceptably, she worked in the non-profit sector in Europe and the United States in a variety of capacities, including as a teacher, for over 15 years.

Monica later worked as a head housekeeper in England, as part of a household management team with her husband. When they moved to the United States, she resumed her earlier profession as a paralegal for the Small Business Administration in Alaska and for the plaintiffs on the Exxon Valdez oil spill case. She subsequently earned her Masters in Business Administration and worked as the business manager for three small businesses in Florida.

She currently runs the day to day affairs of the Institute from her position as the Executive Director at the Institute’s headquarters. From time to time, she assists with teaching larger classes, including teaching executive skills to butler managers.

Ms. Cameron-Williams

Fiona Cameron-Williams

Ms. Cameron-Williams trained in the United Kingdom and Les Roches School of Hotel Management in Switzerland. Six years of further education prepared her to move to the Middle East for ten years, serving Bahrain’s Royal Family. She managed protocol for VIP events, supervised the care of visiting dignitaries, and honed her natural ability to recruit and build teams of superior service professionals from around the world.

In America’s Washington State, Ms. Cameron-Williams managed numerous homes for a Fortune 500 CEO and his family before becoming Head Butler at the legendary Cloister Hotel on Sea Island in Georgia. There she created an elegant balance of the formal butler service found in Europe in its heyday, and genteel Southern hospitality. Hand-picking and managing a team of 65 in this world-class resort, she set a new gold standard for both the hospitality and resort industries.

Currently Ms. Williams is a Professor of Hospitality Management at The City University of New York and conducts International Etiquette and Protocol Classes at the United Nations School in New York.

Wayne Fitzharris

Wayne Fitzharris

Wayne Fitzharris is a Master of H.C.I.M.A. (Hotel & Catering International Management Association) and studied marketing at Cornell University. As its Director and lead trainer, he oversees The International Guild of Butlers and Housemanagers, (IGBH) which looks after the recruitment, placement and training of Executive Butlers, Household Managers, Household and Hospitality Staff around the world. Wayne has also been asked to supply consultancy and etiquette training for many of the families he worked for around the world. In addition to his training commitments, Wayne is a Director of Global Search International responsible for the Executive Recruitment of the Hotel Industry’s leading players in some of the finest resorts around the world.

Wayne began his career at the Dorchester Hotel, and helped open St Andrews Old Course Hotel in Scotland, which won the Caterer Magazine’s “”Hotel of the Year” award. Two years later he took on the role of Household Manager for the Royal Family of Jordan, in Amman, where he supervised over 750 staff, and was tasked with training and bringing the standards up to date.

In 1996, Wayne developed his training skills at various luxury resorts and restaurants around the world. By 2002 he had set up Global Search International and in 2006, joined forces with the International Institute of Modern Butlers LLC.

Michael Wassef

Michael Wassef

Michael Wassef is an Austrian who has been a butler, Estate Manager, valet, and PA in the service of nobility and royalty for decades , as well as General Manager at a hotel. He is based in Europe and the Middle East and speaks English, German, and Arabic fluently, some French.

Mr. Wassef joined the Institute in 2019 as a consultant and butler-on-demand assignments, while qualifying as a trainer.