One of the most critical but often misunderstood aspects of any large corporate risk mitigation strategy is executive protection. High-level executives often serve as the public face of their respective organizations, thus making them a target of scorn and even physical intimidation. But while many people think of executive protection professionals as simply musclebound bodyguards who shepherd high-profile individuals from one place to another, the reality is that it takes a lot more than a physically imposing frame and a firearm to be able to adequately protect someone and their family.
No one knows this fact better than AS Solution’s Christian West and Brian Jantzen, co-authors of the new book, Corporate Executive Protection: An Introduction for Corporations and Security Professionals.
West, who is the founder and CEO of AS Solution, says they were motivated to write the book to provide a roadmap for organizations to actually establish their own executive protection programs because the majority of what has been written on the topic to this point has focused on the tactical aspects of the job – conducting sweeps, defensive driving techniques, etc.
“It is somewhat of a jungle or labyrinth or whatever you want to call it to start one of these teams, so one day Brian and I looked at all of these notes that we had compiled over the years – we personally have been involved in building almost 40 programs around the world for various clients some of which have ran for 20 years which is really, really long in executive protection years – and we had a lot of information that we wanted to share,” West explains.
Jantzen, executive vice president at AS Solution, says they also noticed an information gap in the industry on the practitioner side with regards to career progression. “Our goal is to transform the executive protection industry into a recognized professional service and then also provide career pathing for people so that they have the same kind of career opportunities that we’ve had,” he says. “Looking at all of these different programs and helping to start them or fix them really inspired us to want to share that information and not only grow the business but grow the industry.”
Unlike many of his contemporaries who got their start in the profession by way of either a military or law enforcement background, West started his career in security as a nightclub bouncer in his home country of Denmark. He later met a pair of Danish music producers that had landed a multi-million dollar contract in Los Angeles and needed someone to head up their security operations.
“I started out not knowing anything and learning from my mistakes – and there were plenty of those,” West says. “As everything grew, I figured out there was a smarter way of doing things and being way more client-centric than most of the competitors.”
After spending seven years in the entertainment industry, West returned to Denmark and started his own firm, which he later sold to Securitas. Having spent some time as special projects manager for Securitas, West struck out on his own again and founded his current firm, AS Solution.
Unlike West, Jantzen followed a more conventional path to the field of executive protection. He began his career managing contract security at Microsoft around the time when the software giant started its first executive protection program. He was later hired by the company to work as an executive protection agent where he worked for a dozen years before branching out to work for several high net-worth clients. He joined AS Solution about four and a half years ago.
Adapting to Change
West says he’s seen the profession change substantially since his time in the entertainment industry with protection details growing from two or three agents at the most to some people having “Secret Service-style” details that can perform a myriad of different functions in addition to physically guarding the principal, such as gathering intelligence, conducting threat assessments, deploying various technology solutions.
“We’ve seen an evolution and we’re trying to push the evolution of changing the conversation about executive protection so that it’s not just about talking about the tactical aspects and the hard skills because what really needs to happen in order for executive protection to become more ubiquitous across corporations is for us to explain the true value and also talk about how there is a return on investment,” Jantzen adds. “What’s being added in now and what’s evolving is it’s not just about the hard skills but it’s also about the soft skills and a lot of the work that executive protection agents do around the world is about collaborating on short-term teams as well as logistical support and making sure you have efficient movements and that you can pivot really quickly and adjust to itinerary changes and other things that may pop up from a logistical standpoint.”
Dispelling Misconceptions
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about executive protection, according to West, is that it is all about having several big guys with sunglasses and ear pieces, which is the way the profession is portrayed in movies and television shows. “They think it’s just putting this protective bubble around (the executive) and when he moves everybody else moves in a set formation and stuff like that,” he says. “You see on TV all of these bodyguards that work for the government and that’s the way it’s done by the government traditionally and people think that is the only way and actually it’s far from the truth.
“The biggest misconception is that it’s all about muscles and a gun,” Jantzen adds. “Another is that just because you were in the military or law enforcement that you’re able to do executive protection and that’s not a given, especially in the corporate world.”
Keys to Success
West says those who want to run a successful executive protection program should begin by listening to the client in order to match security measures with their lifestyle and also learn how to be flexible. “A lot of people think that being flexible is being like a half an hour late or whatever. What you put in place today may not work tomorrow and you have to scrap everything you did and put something else in place,” West says.
Jantzen says there also needs to be operational and financial transparency, especially in a corporate environment.
“This is a challenging concept because an executive protection program is very non-standard inside of a corporation. It’s not something they normally do or that business people understand, so letting people see what is behind the curtain and not keeping it a secret is important,” he says. “A big part of that is not siloing yourself and again, especially in corporations, you have to identify all of your relationships across the corporate ecosystem and connect into them and maintain and nurture those relationships. Where we’ve seen a lot of programs go sideways is when they silo themselves and don’t connect into the rest of the corporate departments.”
West emphasized that the book is certainly not the be all and end all of how to build an executive protection program but he hopes that some of the experiences and knowledge that he and Jantzen have accumulated throughout their careers will serve as a guide to others as they undertake creating programs within their own organizations.
“If the reader can take a little bit of our experiences and make their day easier, make it better for their client or help professionalize the industry in any way that would be huge for me,” West concludes.
Click here to learn more about the book or to purchase a copy.
