Market Key - Management, Consultancy & Solutions

MOUNIR EL KHOURY, CHAIRMAN & CEO

Entrepreneur and CEO of internationally based Market Key, Mounir El Khoury hails from Beirut, Lebanon.
As the second son in a family of six. Mounir El Khoury's childhood was shaped by conflicts his family experienced during Lebanon's civil war.
Even so, his excellent academic accomplishments, inquisitive outlook, and interest in the world around him gave birth to El Khoury's entrepreneurial spirit.
He reminisces: I have had the ambition to participate in the world of business from an early age.

The dreams of youth! El Khoury captured his dream and tested it by executing small-scale business deals, designing and selling private label swimwear collections during summer vacations during Middle School. Small profits in business convinced El Khoury to major in Business Marketing at university.

The avenues open to him from his high grades combined with parental preference for education in the more traditional fields of Medicine or Law challenged the young businessperson’s determination without success. At the age of 17, El Khoury co-founded Market Key with his brother in Beirut, Lebanon; the next year, he enrolled at Notre Dame University of Lebanon and by 25, had completed the University’s degree with a double major in Business Marketing and Advertising. He quickly joined the Masters program of the American University of Beirut majoring in International Law and Diplomacy.

Determined to position Market Key as a leading international management consultancy and solutions company, El Khoury strategized the company’s business expertise to emphasize Management consultancy & Solutions, Human resources and Recruiting, Exhibitions and Events, and Publishing. Complementing twelve years of outstanding accomplishments in Market-Key’s original channels, El Khoury, ever the entrepreneur, expanded his original business model to embrace an additional niche stream of training programs in collaboration with the Florida-based International Institute of Modern Butlers (IIMB) as a Partner. El Khoury states: With IIMB, Market-Key has deepened and extended its services for employers and job seekers.

El Khoury manages four Market-Key-owned offices in Beirut, Dubai, Doha, and Florida, along with setting annual goals and standards for the company’s 21 additional offices and affiliates throughout the world. In opening the Florida office, El Khoury added green initiatives for the hospitality industry, with the Florida office coordinating this international program in collaboration with Market-Key’s head office.

STEVEN FERRY, VP - MARKET KEY USA & AMERICAS

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 and consulting.

Drawing on his early years as an educator in England, he published three
textbooks for the profession - ³The 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 and consult their employers about their domestic needs.

He subsequently broadened his campaign to improve on service standards using
the butler model, by providing training and consulting services to the
hospitality industry and founding the International Institute of Modern
Butlers in 2004.

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 industry for butlers
in hotels. In 2007, he introduced the concept of the Guest from Hell and
helped establish the HotelSafeguard program for hotels.

He is currently on the Editorial Board of Hotel Business magazine and writes
for a variety of industry trade magazines and newsletters. He has lectured
at a number of venues, including Harvard University.

As Chairman of the Board of the International Institute of Modern Butlers,
he oversees the operations of its offices and trainers around the world and
personally 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.

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
over 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

Serving the wealthy, vol I & II, 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

MONICA FERRY, COO - MARKET KEY USA & AMERICAS

THE FINE ART OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IS THE EXPERTISE OF MONICA FERRY, COO AMERICAS, MARKET KEY USA LLC

Born and raised in Holland, Ms. Ferry started her career in the non-profit sector. She notes: It was my interest in people that initially drove me to work for a non-profit organization. From a very young age, I had always known I wanted to work directly with people and help others to improve conditions in their lives. While studying to become a social worker as a young woman in Holland, I was invited to work for an international humanitarian association. I jumped at the chance, thinking it could be a worthwhile experience, and it was.

Ms. Ferry shifted to work in the private sector after 15 years of non-profit employment in Europe and the United States and eventually decided to settle permanently in the USA. She recounts: My husband and I had worked in the US previously and were familiar with the way of life, freedoms and opportunities available to people in this country that are not necessarily accessible to people elsewhere. We wanted to avail ourselves of those and when my husband was offered a position with a private family, we didn’t think twice.

As a paralegal for various legal firms, Ferry worked on both sides of the Exxon Valdez oil spill case: I had a chance to view that drama from Exxon’s side as well as from the side of the many different people who were affected by it. It made me realize that we humans often aren’t really aware of the negative effects our actions are having on the environment. Perfectly nice people can sometimes create a huge, unintended mess! But as humans, it is our responsibility to confront the fact that some of our actions DO have negative side effects and we must take responsibility for that we are intelligent enough as a race to step back and come up with workable solutions that benefit everyone, as long as we work together, not against each other.

Earning her MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, Ms. Ferry specialized in negotiation and strategic information systems. She interned for the Small Business Administration. Subsequently, she administered three small businesses in Florida before launching her first business in 1995 a writing and photography business that continues to do well to this day.

In 2004, Ms. Ferry co-founded the International Institute of Modern Butlers (IIMB) and currently runs the day-to-day affairs as Executive Director at the Institute’s headquarters in Florida. One of the key ingredients of our success, often missed by business people these days, she notes, is the subject of ethics and really caring what happens to your clients or customers. In IIMB, we pride ourselves in going the extra mile for the client and really persisting until we achieve the exact product we promised to deliver. We never let go until WE know that we have a good product and until the CLIENT is happy with it, too. As a result of this attitude and operating basis, people have come to know us to be reliable and trustworthy and come back to us. They feel confident about referring other clients to us because they know we deliver what we promise.

Furthermore, we treat EVERY person who contacts us as important whether he is an executive wanting training for a whole butler department or a single butler writing in from a remote island wanting some help to sort out a particular situation he is facing. Each client is looked upon as important and treated that way, whether big or small. Their communication is handled instantly it’s not left to hang around. This practice in particular builds confidence and trust. People KNOW they will receive an answer from us, they know there is a live person at the other end of the line who really cares and will help them solve whatever situation they are facing. Fueled by this conviction, Ms. Ferry also assists IIMB’s educational division from time to time by teaching larger classes as well as teaching executive skills.

What makes America successful IS small business, Ms. Ferry concludes. It is truly the backbone of the American economy and I feel strongly that the US government should foster and support small business in any way possible.

As COO of Market Key USA LLC, Ms. Ferry remarks: MK USA is a small business right now and I see an opportunity for us to work together with other small businesses in the Green Hotels industry to develop the market and become a big business, because it is a very big market with a huge need. It’s so often that small businesses blaze the trails in new markets and it will be no different in this green hotels arena.

Fluent in Dutch and English, conversational in German, Monica Ferry is a global citizen, meeting and working with people from many different cultural and racial backgrounds. During the course of her international career, she has realized that, Underneath apparent differences on the outside, people are quite similar in what they want out of life and what they care about. Most people are simply trying to carve out a good life for themselves and their families. They want to make the world a better place for their children and grandchildren. Most people really just want to do the right thing whether they are American, German, Japanese, Jewish, or Arab. As a result, I feel comfortable working with people from all walks and areas of life and have learned how to bring out the best in them, no matter who they are or what their background is.

Ms. Ferry brings this philosophy and her people and managerial skills to Market Key USA LLC, where she intends to use them to help build another successful, expanding business.