Chairman - Steven Ferry was born in Southern 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. He established the International Guild of Traditional Butlers and wrote the basic manual on how to butle in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, he had left private service to focus on his writing.
Drawing on his early years as an educator in England, he 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 on service standards using the butler model, by providing training and consulting services to the hospitality industry.
Steven 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.
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 and in 2006 introduced rating standards to the industry for butlers in hotels. He has lectured at a number of venues, including Harvard University.
Prior to working in the hospitality profession, Steven was a professor of education and worked in the non-profit sector in various capacities. He has close to 20 books published, 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 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
Werner Leutert President
Born in the USA of Swiss parents, Mr. Werner Leutert grew up in the traditions of Swiss hospitality, efficiency and appreciation for manners and protocol. His service nature led him to earn a BS degree in Restaurant and Hotel Administration from the University of Massachusetts.
He began his service career as manager of a family-owned resort in the Adirondack Mountains of New York; at the Irondequoit Club Inn. Here as a young manager right "out of the box" Mr. Leutert was exposed to the tensions between hotel school focus on managing for profit and the owner's desires to have things remain the way that they were traditionally.
Next came 18 years of service as Butler/Estate Manager of the historic Glendorn Estate, now a Relais and Chateaux affiliated property, but completely private during his time there. As the largest single employer of domestic staff in Pennsylvania during the 1980s, Glendorn employed over 60 persons during peak summer periods in all the traditional household positions ranging from cooks to housekeepers, nannies, drivers, and more. While catering to the wishes and sensibilities of six distinct branches of the same owning family, Werner became intimately familiar with the challenges of keeping the respect of both family members and staff.
When the owners of Glendorn Estate decided to open up the facility as a destination resort to an exclusive sector of the public, Mr. Leutert decided to continue in private service as the formal Butler for a prominent and formal family in a fully staffed residence in Naples, Florida.
Next, seeking to capitalize on his keen understanding of private service employer and employee sensibilities he opened his own private service staffing consultancy in 1999. Initially he provided service under the auspices of the International Guild of Professional Butlers of which he has been a founding member since 1998, including acting as the Guild's Vice Chairman for several years. He currently runs his own consulting agency, the Home Staffing Network, www.homestaffingnetwork.com.
Mr. Leutert is keenly interested in all matters concerning Butlers and other private service personnel. He has frequently been asked to consult on a variety of staffing and non-staffing projects including site visits, coaching for employers and employees, specialized projects such as the recruitment of Paul Hogan, Butler extraordinaire for the Fox Television hit show Joe Millionaire and many other projects large and small. Through a newsletter that he has been producing since 2002, Werner seeks to inform and share topics of interest with interested persons around the world.
As President of the International Institute of Modern Butlers LLC, Werner is available to answer questions, provide ideas and consult with you on matters pertaining to education and training in private service situations and specialized service venues such as hotels, spas and resorts were personal service is an art form. He understands traditional values in the modern service context.
Monica Ferry Director
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 head housekeeper, as part of a household with her husband, in England. When they moved to the United States, she resumed an earlier profession as a paralegal for the Small Business Administration in Alaska and on the Exxon Valdez oil spill case for the plaintiffs. She subsequently earned her MBA 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 Executive Director at the Institute’s headquarters in Florida, including assisting with teaching larger classes and teaching executive skills to butler managers.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
