Executive Protection (EP)

It’s a dangerous world we live in these days. We live in a world of threat: Threats to companies, corporations, personalities, people with money or significant assets, celebrities and anyone high-profile for one reason or another. With the world on show in the media more than ever, people who are in the spotlight can hardly make a move without attracting attention and some of that attention does not have the best motives. That is why the demand for executive protection agents and protective services has continued to grow over the last 30 years. 

When many people hear the term protection agent, they tend to associate that with being a fancy term for the word “bodyguard.” Although guarding a person against an imminent threat is part of what an executive protection agent does, there is much more involved with this service.  

While an important and necessary role, the job of being a bodyguard is generally considered to be more reactive than that of an executive protection agent. Bodyguards stay close to their Principle at all times, similar to an EP (executive protection) agent, their primary functions being to shield their clients from attack, fending off threats or annoyances to them – often the press – and ensuring that they get from point A to point B safely. 

Executive protection agents take a more proactive approach and analytical role to keep their clients out of harm’s way.  They utilize in-depth planning, preparation and advance work to cover all aspects of a trip, identify any risks and establish plans to mitigate them. This type of approach is designed to lessen the chances that the Principle (a client) will be exposed to a threat or that an executive protection agent will need to physically protect the Principle by mitigating a threat, even though they are well-trained to do so.