School for ‘CEOs of the household’

Paul Luke
Province

Linda Samis plans to train six Canadian butlers on Galiano Island this spring. Photograph by : Les Bazso, the Province

You’re a billionaire and your wealth is choking you.

You’ve got a sprawling mansion, a Palm Beach hideaway, a few yachts and a frayed teddy you love more than anything else.

You have no idea how to manage all this stuff. But you don’t want to give it away, especially the bear.

Two Canadian companies have come to the rescue. In April, Butlers of Canada will begin its first six-week training course for butlers at Galiano Oceanfront Inn and Spa on Galiano Island.

Butlers of Canada’s six students will be schooled by Olivier Lepetit, a Paris-based butler whose rich-and-famous former clients glitter like diamonds on his resumé.

The following month, Toronto-based Charles MacPherson Associates launches its first eight-week butler training course at Graydon Hall Manor in North York, Ont.

Charles MacPherson will charge the 15 to 20 students in its inaugural class $15,000 each.

Butlers of Canada’s tuition fee is $20,000. Grads should eventually command a salary of 100 grand a year or more, company founder and boss Linda Samis says.

“When a billionaire can find someone they can trust, $100,000 is nothing,” Steveston-based Samis says. “It’s like buying a coffee for them.” Butling is booming. The explosion of millies and billies in Russia, China and the Middle East has got the world ringing for these senior servants, says Clive McGonigal, founder of Thebutlerbureau.com, an online resource.

“Employing a butler makes good financial sense,” says McGonigal, an ex-butler living in Normandy.

“Also, there is now a massive market for butlers in the luxury-hotel and spa markets.” Over the years, the butler has been stereotyped as a wry British dude in tails, possibly with a twittish name like Jeeves, who answers doors, fetches brandies and gets blamed for household murders.

Today, butling is a complex and demanding job. A butler is the CEO of a household, who ensures everything from the garden to the kitchen to the garage runs smoothly, Samis says.

The man or woman working as a butler may supervise a staff of 40, manage half-a-dozen residences and oversee a huge fleet of vehicles, says Rodger Campbell, director of corporate development at Charles MacPherson.

“In a large household, the butler would never do the shoe polishing. A valet would do that sort of work,” Campbell says. “But a good butler can step in and take on any task.” Estate or household or ranch managers handle even larger staffs and budgets. They can earn up to $200,000 a year, he says.

Campbell divides butlers into three groups: residential, hotel and, in China, apartment butlers.

Hotel butlers are the interface between guest and facility. They’re responsible for selling extra services to visitors and ensuring guests are treated well enough to return.

An apartment butler is more like a concierge, delivering packages and running errands, Campbell says.

Rising demand for butlers has triggered an increase in butler schools around the world. Besides its North York operation, Charles MacPherson hopes to open butler-training academies in the Philippines and China.

McGonigal, 51, advises potential students to check trainers’ qualifications and assess a school’s placement service.

Butlers of Canada accepts only Canadians. Its first wave of closely screened male and female students ranges in age from 32 to 59.

“For people who have been displaced or downsized, being a butler can be a new avenue,” Samis says.

“Maybe their kids have grown up and they want to travel and make a lot of money, and why not?” At Charles MacPherson, students will move through courses on table setting and service, housekeeping, laundry, security and driving and cooking. They will learn to steam a ball gown, pack a suitcase and set a flawless fireplace.

Today’s butlers must be computer-savvy to survive the blizzard of responsibilities, Campbell says. MacPherson devotes two days to training students on software that helps manage calendars, wine cellars, inventories, maintenance and guest visits.

Traits on a butler’s “must have” list are flexibility, dedication, discretion and unobtrusive empathy.

“If you have a superb butler, you might not know they were around. They would be almost invisible,” Campbell says.

“But you would never want for anything. They would anticipate your every move and your every demand.” Butlers must be graceful about taking an employer’s calls at all hours. Demanding families will push you hard, Campbell says.

On the other hand, butlers live in luxury and travel their coattails off.

“You get to live a high lifestyle. You just need to remember that it’s not your money,” he says.

McGonigal, whose last butling job was a freelance assignment in a Moroccan palace, took enormous satisfaction from exceeding clients’ expectations. Blowing dinner guests’ minds with a stunning fusion of food, wine, service and ambience made it all worthwhile.

“Downsides? The occasional twit who had to be reminded that my serving him did not necessarily make me his inferior,” he says.

“And, being a very opinionated and verbal person, keeping my mouth shut when a guest talked total tripe”

© The Vancouver Province 2008

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Other News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.