Q&A> CHARLES MACPHERSON

We all know the butler did it — but where did he learn to do it? And who taught him? Charles MacPherson is the founder of Charles MacPherson Associates, overseeing both the placement of domestic staff, and the Charles MacPherson Academy for Butlers and Household Managers, the only registered professional school for butlers in North America. He estimates there are as many as 750 butlers in service across Canada, and the demand is growing. Your agency places butlers and household managers all over the world. Where do most of them go? In Canada it’s Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver right now is the largest growing market. Globally, America is a huge market. They’re not called butlers in America, they’re called household managers, but they’re doing exactly the same thing. In Europe, the U.K. is still a very big employer of butlers. And then Asia is now the exploding market; China, specifically, is looking for Chinese butlers who can speak the language and are native to the country so they understand the culture. Traditionally, butlers were always men. Is this still the case? In private households, 90 per cent are male, and 10 per cent are female. But interestingly enough, in the hospitality industry, it’s pretty close to 50-50. And when you go into the Middle East, it becomes primarily women, because a man can’t go into the woman’s part of the house, or a woman’s household. Whereas a woman can go into both the men’s and women’s areas. What sorts of things do your students have to learn in the month they attend your program? Everything from laundry, to housekeeping, to household management, to etiquette. There is first aid, there is security, there is mechanical systems. You spend a day with a seamstress learning how you correctly sew a button, how you hem a pair of pants in an emergency. There’s a day with a chef where you learn how to buy the perfect pineapple or the right apples. How do you tell if fish is fresh? How do you grill meat? How do you make a vinaigrette? So that if the chef calls in sick, the butler can still move forward. Then there are things like mixology, and wine and champagne class. So it’s a long month. How much can a butler expect to earn? Freshly graduated butlers earn around $50,000 or $60,000 a year. Within five years this can rise to $75,000, and after than can reach $100,000 to $150,000 based on experiences. What are some of the most important qualities of a good butler? A good butler has to have the ability to anticipate the needs of the employer. And discretion; as John Roberts — one of the senior butler trainers here — says, “When a butler enters a room, he or she should be less in the room then before they entered.”