PSA Advisory Board
Industry Directors
Agency Director
Starla Smith
Starla Smith is an accomplished businesswoman who has used her creative ingenuity, inherent leadership skills, and passion for entrepreneurship to build a thriving company, connecting household employees with permanent and temporary placements around the country. In 2000, she joined Household Staffing as a Placement Coordinator, and 13 years later, she took over as the Owner Operator, a role she still works in today. Under her leadership, the company has exceeded sales goals and has established itself as a leading name in the domestic services industry.
Before beginning her role at Household Staffing, Smith founded her own company, Rodman Street Neckwear, where she imported, manufactured, and marketed men’s neckwear. After five years of growing the company’s revenue, she transitioned to work as an account representative and in executive positions for HAAS Publishing and TelSave. Her extensive sales background with a proven track record of success led Smith into sales management roles, working for a year as the Vice President of Sales for Commercial Realty Review, as the Area Sales Manager for Harman Homes Publishing Company, and as the General Sales Manager for Renters Guide Weekly.
Throughout the last three decades of her career, Smith has harnessed her passion for excellence in everything she does, demonstrating confidence as a leader and innovator.
Agency Director
Daniel Wood
Daniel has been a leader in the hospitality industry for over 25 years, including 12 years in private luxury services as an Estate Manager, Private Chef, and Yacht Chef. He has extensive experience in all sides of the hiring triangle: as a candidate, a hiring manager, and a third-party recruiter. This understanding of all facets of the private service market allows Daniel to make such effective matches when pairing the right candidate with the right environment.
Daniel began his professional career as a chef in fine dining restaurants in Maryland, Florida, and Germany after studying culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University. He gained his first Private Chef position for a family in 1999, traveling with them as they rotated through their homes in the US, along with summers in France. From 2001 through 2006, he accepted Executive Chef, Private Chef, and Yacht Chef assignments in California, Dubai, London, France, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and Mexico, expanding his culinary expertise at every venue. In his role as an Estate Manager | Private Chef, Daniel managed three luxury residences in the US and Europe while preparing world-class, creative dinners for the family. For five years, he ensured the family’s homes were as beautiful and detailed as the gourmet meals served to the principals.
By 2008, Daniel was ready for an additional challenge and accepted a simultaneous role as a recruiter for a well-known Private Chef placement agency. In this capacity, he found his second passion: matching qualified chefs with private employers to create effective and professional long-term relationships.
In 2012, Daniel founded Domestic | Match, a boutique private service staffing agency that served the needs of prominent families throughout the United States. After three years of success with Domestic | Match, he saw a need for a separate Private Chef division and launched Private Chef | Match. PCM referred highly skilled culinary professionals to families, yacht owners, and corporations worldwide.
In 2024, after 12 years of expansion, Daniel rebranded the company. Domestic | Match and Private Chef | Match became DM Estate Staffing.
Today, Daniel enjoys working closely with clients and candidates alike, helping both sides understand the recruitment process while guiding them to achieve the best possible match for all parties.
Educational Director
Bonnie Low-Kramen
For 25 years, Bonnie Low-Kramen worked as the Personal Assistant to Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis and is the bestselling author of Be the Ultimate Assistant. An expert in workplace issues, she is a TEDx speaker, and her work was profiled in a Forbes (online) cover story in May, 2019. Her workshop by the same name was one of the Top Conferences to Attend in 2018-2021 and she is a popular speaker at private service industry conferences.
As a consultant on workplace bullying to the World Administrators Summit, Bonnie is committed to ending this global problem. As a writer, she is on the Editorial Board and is a contributor to Executive Support Magazine. Traveling to 14 countries and 38 states, Bonnie’s clients include the Wharton School of Business, the British Parliament, the Four Seasons Hotel, Starbucks, and Amazon. In 2018, Bonnie received the Impact Award from the Boston Executive Assistants Organization.
A native New Jerseyan and a Rutgers University (RC ’79) grad, Bonnie knows that the secret sauce for an ultimate workplace includes cultures of respect and embraced diversity. These themes are the basis for her newest book, Staff Matters, released in 2023.
Educational Director
Thomas Kaufmann
Thomas Kaufmann, founder of Noble & Hitsch and CEO of Jeeves Training Ltd, is a trained butler with over a decade of experience in private service and almost as many years of experience in training butlers and hospitality service staff. After establishing The International Butler Academy in China, Mr. Kaufmann served as CEO and Head Trainer at The International Butler Academy in the Netherlands, the world’s Top Butling and House Management school.
Noble & Hitsch and Jeeves Training Ltd specialize in high-end training for the hospitality industry and private household staff. Adhering to traditional British-style butler traditions, both businesses use proven techniques and modern methods to achieve the results their high-profile clients are accustomed to.
Based in Hong Kong, Mr. Kaufmann offers consulting services and hands-on practical training to private clients and corporations such as hotels, casinos, real estate companies, and other companies throughout Europe, China, and Southeast Asia, that require high-class hospitality and customer services.
Global Business Director
Christopher P Ramey
Christopher P Ramey is the most quoted independent authority in the luxury segment. He is a keynote speaker, consultant, marketing technologist, and thought leader for all things related to selling and serving the luxury and affluent space. His personal consultancy is Affluent Insights, where he serves clients across all categories in the luxury and premium segments. Ramey is managing director of The American Marketing Group, where he and his partners serve brands that want to penetrate the American market. He is also president of The Home Trust International, a platform for brands that serve high-net-worth families and their influencers with the finest products and services for their homes.
Ramey has earned the Leadership Top 5% Appellation from Gerson Lehrman for his work with private equity firms acquiring luxury and home furnishings brands. He’s also a National Speakers Association member and sits on the Retail Wire Brain Trust panel. Ramey’s background includes president of The Luxury Marketing Council Miami and The Luxury Marketing Council Palm Beach. As a retailer, Ramey was the founder and former president of Savvi Formalwear, where he grew the chain to over 400 stores. Ramey was also president of the International Design Guild, where he grew 15 independent decorative showrooms into 95 showrooms in every major North American market.
Ramey is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and resides in Martin County, Florida.
Global Business Director
Jeffrey MacDowell
Jeffrey MacDowell is the Executive Director of Luxury Products Group (LPG), where he brings a wealth of industry experience and a passion for excellence in the decorative bath, kitchen, and lighting categories. With a career spanning over two decades, Jeffrey has been a driving force behind LPG’s growth and innovation.
Under his leadership, LPG has launched several key initiatives, including a pilot Certified Management Program and expanded entry-level training content for showroom employees. Jeffrey’s forward-thinking approach has also led to the introduction of showroom rendering assistance, helping members create stunning environments at a fraction of the usual cost.
Jeffrey is committed to providing LPG members with exclusive, high-quality products through initiatives such as the group’s private label faucet line, Current, which is available exclusively to members and not sold online. His dedication to fostering strong relationships and delivering exceptional value has solidified LPG’s position as a leader in the industry.
With a reputation for strategic vision and collaborative leadership, Jeffrey continues to champion innovation and excellence within LPG, ensuring that members are well-equipped to thrive in a competitive market.
Private Service Director
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Private Service Director
Anthony Barlow
As a former collegiate athlete and an accomplished leader, Anthony Barlow specializes in managing complex estates for UHNW families. Anthony’s Southern upbringing and professional experience form the perfect marriage, where his passion for serving is complimented by his drive to learn and help others. In addition to creating highly efficient structures to ensure the residences in his care perform at optimal capacity, Anthony enjoys creating a healthy and exciting workplace for his teams.
Principal Liaison Director
Jennifer Laurence
Jennifer Laurence is a consummate hospitality professional who has loved domesticity for as long as she can remember. Early in her college career, she discovered the world of professional home management and private service through an estate management internship and knew she had found her calling. Her passionate commitment to pursuing unique educational experiences led her to graduate with honors from the only all-women’s hospitality school in North America, a unique bachelor’s program where the business of hospitality was always balanced with elevating the art of domestic service. She has continued to devote herself to professional development in hospitality and private service, completing her master’s degree with honors in hospitality from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Wine Sommelier certificate, a Visual Communications certificate, is a trained Protocol Officer from The Protocol School of Washington, and attended the prestigious Charles MacPherson Academy for Butlers and Household Managers where she graduated top of her class.
For over 20 years, she has worked in all areas of hospitality and private domestic service, as well as in commercial property management and facility services. This blend of experiences has made her a very successful private service professional. She uses her strong hospitality and facilities management business foundation and balances it with the grace and decorum needed to work in private service. Throughout her career, she has served affluent clients, celebrities, and successful business professionals in their home and office settings, making even the most minor details extraordinary for those she serves. Ms. Laurence frequently travels to meet client needs and can be contracted for brief or extended on-site visits. She is passionate about the private service industry and served on the board of the Chicago chapter of the Domestic Estate Managers Association from 2010 to 2020. She is now the Principal Liaison Director on the advisory board of Private Service Alliance, an elite professional association for the private service industry where she can be a resource and advocate for principal estate owners and their teams nationwide.
She enjoys cooking, target archery, and teaching essential oil aromatherapy in her spare time.
Director At Large
Charles MacPherson
After nearly a decade serving as major-domo, overseeing more than thirty household staff for one of Canada’s most prominent families, Charles set his sights on starting his own business. In 1996, he founded Charles MacPherson Associates (CMA) and began providing his household management expertise to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Today, CMA recruits and places household staff, educates and trains private service professionals, and consults for HNW and UHNW families on household management and operations matters. With this foundation and his keen understanding of clients’ service expectations, Charles has expanded the business into hospitality and customer service training and advisory.
Over the last two decades, Charles has built a reputation within the Private Service industry as a keynote speaker, a published author of four books, and a global authority in the butler and household management fields for private residential, hospitality, and customer service sectors worldwide. He has established butler department standards and trained butlers for the Queen Mary II, Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai, Aria Resort and Casino Las Vegas, Wynn Macau, and Taj Hotels, Resorts, and Palaces. He has also delivered several customer service improvement initiatives with a wide range of clients, including Louis Vuitton, The Ford Motor Company, and Royal Bank of Canada, to name a few.
Additional Advisors
General Counsel
Harry Jones
Harry Jones has a national and international focus in his practice; he guides general counsel and HR departments through 50-state and complex cross-border issues, particularly in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. For over 25 years, Harry has advised and defended employers, including dozens of jury trials. Additionally, Harry has led more than 80 high-profile investigations on behalf of school districts, cities, colleges, and private institutions. He also provides day-to-day advice to human resources professionals on hiring, training, pay, discipline, and termination, including a specialty in dealing with complex c-suite misconduct issues. He has led the national class action defense of wage and hour cases; and has aggressively protected business interests from unfair competition. Harry has been named as a Texas Super Lawyer, perennially.
Insurance Broker
Clint Anderson
Clint Anderson knows about the healthcare crisis first-hand, especially for individuals and small businesses. What originally started as a 21-year-old independent contractor searching for insurance has now turned into a 20-year career in the insurance industry. From seeing the market as a new agent calling on businesses to the executive level as a Business Development Manager operating state market teams of $30+ million. Clint is fortunate enough to bring the wisdom of a consumer to the corporate crossroads of what is best for the insured.
A significant shift is happening that benefits the small group employers, primarily individuals. This is why he is excited to partner with Private Service Alliance and its members. Clint has a unique ability to explain insurance benefits in layperson’s terms, sources and customizes the best insurance products, and respects the privilege of looking after the fiduciary responsibility for the insured.
PSA Members: Please take a moment to learn more about PSA Benefits and the different insurance options now available through the Group Insurance section in our member community, then reach out to Clint for customized quotes.
Committee Chair
Tonya Sakowicz
Thank You To Our Former Directors
Retired ~ Private Service Director
Chris Allen
English-born Chris Allen began traveling at the tender age of 16, which landed him on various private yachts in the UK and the Mediterranean. One such encounter led to his first position in private service, with English aristocracy, based in Switzerland and the South of France. From there, he found employment in the United States (along with his lovely wife, Kim), where he managed several estates ending with a 34,000 sq. ft. Gold Coast mansion. After 19 years in private service, he decided to try his hand at running a business.
Chris and Kim started “A Butler’s Manor” in 2002 and built it up to be the top-rated Bed & Breakfast in Southampton, NY. They now enjoy retirement and look forward to whatever opportunities and challenges that may bring. The couple spends winters in Laguna Beach, CA, and summers in New England.
