CEOs wait tables for AMCHAM charity night

[THE INVESTOR] “Everyone, work your servers. You get to be their boss tonight. And isn‘t that a good feeling?”

With those words from John Schuldt, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, the 12th CEO Servers’ Night at the Conrad Hotel in Seoul began on Friday. Hosted annually by the Partners for the Future Foundation, the event has the chief executives of AMCHAM member companies don white aprons to wait on family and friends and raise funds for scholarships for underprivileged students.

The servers of the night included AMCHAM president John Schuldt, Partners for the Future Foundation chairman Jeffrey Jones, Asian Tigers Mobility CEO Joseph Song, FedEx Express CEO Chae Eun-mi, GM Korea president James Kim, Outback Steakhouse Korea CEO Cho In-soo and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea country manager Oh Dong-wook.

The families, friends and employees of the eight CEO servers were in high spirits as their waiters scuttled about serving up a five-meal course and plenty of wine, dressed in customized embroidered white aprons for the event with black bow ties.

Doing their part to help raise money, the servers were not shy about drinking on the job. “Best part of the job,” said Schuldt with a hearty laugh, as he scanned his table for plates to clear.

The five-course meal, which included American rib-eye steaks, was accompanied by a running tally of total wine sales from each table, spurring on the diners to raise more money. Cheers erupted from tables every time a new leader emerged.

At the end of the night, the roughly 140 guests raised a total of approximately 35 million won ($30,000) for scholarships.

Bradley Buckwalter, president of RGM, Tyco Korea, said after the dinner, “I’ve participated as a server before, and this is my first time as a guest.”

“It’s a unique event, a great way to raise money for scholarships,” he added.

Jeffrey Jones, the chairman of the Partners for Future Foundation and who has been at the event for all 12 years, said, “Even after 12 years, it’s still fun. We’ve got a great team all working together.”

The Partners for the Future Foundation is the charitable arm of AMCHAM, which works to help unemployed people obtain practical job skills through scholarship grants and training programs.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)