Today, we are speaking with acclaimed security expert and renowned executive protection mogul, Kent Moyer, CEO of The World Protection Group, Inc. & 001. When it comes to protecting high net-worth individuals and celebrity clients, Kent Moyer has got the 411 on everything A-list.
LA CONFIDENTIAL: Kent, can you tell me a bit about your background?
KENT MOYER: My first job in this industry was working for Playboy, protecting Mr. Hugh Hefner and his family at the Playboy Mansion. Today, I am CEO of The World Protection Group and the recently formed 001, a luxury executive protection company that specializes in protecting high-net-worth and celebrity clients. As a graduate of the Wharton Business School Advanced Management Program, I have studied Strategic Management of Luxury Businesses at Wharton and at the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy. Over the last eighteen years, I have worked exclusively in law enforcement, while operating as a specialist in Dignitary Protection & Intelligence.
Tell me about your new company, 001.
KM: 001 is like the American Express Black Card of Executive Protection. Our tagline is: “We Protect Your Lifestyle.” As the first luxury company in the Executive Protection Industry, I studied numerous luxury brands at The Wharton School & Bocconi such as Armani, Porsche, Mercedes, Bvlgari, Chopard, Tiffany & Co., Pagani & Ferrari, along with many others.
With 001, I wanted to create an exceptional company that was unlike anything else in the industry. To achieve this, I educated myself on The Ritz-Carlton Gold Standard of Operations, a style of sophisticated customer service in which each of our employees has been trained and a process which informed the creation of 001.
We protect your lifestyle.
What is your feeling about the current quality of Hollywood Celebrity Protection?
KM: Most of it is terrible. I have a saying: “Drain the Bodyguard/Buddyguard Swamp.” There are bodyguards who have become “Buddyguards.” Go to YouTube and you can see the dysfunctional, eclectic protection, where bodyguards (who to me are untrained thugs getting into ‘use of force’ incidents) are selling information on the celebrities to the tabloids and posting pictures with their celebrity clients on Twitter.
As professionals, we must maintain a strict barrier between the client and ourselves. One of the basic principles of protection is guarding a client’s confidentiality. WPG & 001 have formally trained Executive Protection Agents that do not Engage in that type of “Buddyguard” behavior.
What are your thoughts on Client Confidentiality?
KM: It is the most important element in a relationship with a client. If you cannot protect a VIP’s privacy their confidentiality, how can you perform physical protection? What people don’t know about the celebrity industry is that a dysfunctional, untrained security guard will do anything to break a news story where they get to talk about their client. They’ll even write a book about them! I get paid not to write the book.
What is the most exciting or rewarding moment in your history of providing protection?
KM: My company has been involved in three counter-terrorism cases and has prevented several terrorist attacks in the U.S., which I am not at leisure to name. What I enjoy most is the behind-the-scenes work with law enforcement and the FBI on those cases. Those cases never hit the media.
Our goal is to keep it out of the media. In that regard, we are 100% proactive and preventative in our work.
Kent Moyer’s Top 10 Security Recommendations for Celebrity Clients:
- DO NOT hire bodyguards or “Buddyguards.”
- DO USE Encrypted e-mail with your family & C-Suite level Employees or Executives.
- DO USE vetted American Executive Protection Agents & Drivers, during international travel.
- DO NOT tweet where you are going. It alerts potential bad guys of your location!
- DO NOT post pictures on social media of:
- Your family,
- Where you live,
- Where your office is, or
- Locations you often frequent in.
- DO NOT get any mail at your home & DO make sure no one knows where you live. (Put your home into a corporation name.)
- DO have a professional security consultant perform a risk/vulnerability assessment of:
- Your home,
- Your office, and
- Your children’s school.
- DO get your personal information off of the Internet.
- DO spend one hour putting together a security plan for every trip you go on.
- DO create security alertness in your daily life. If you receive any threats, stalkers or inappropriate mail, get it to security professional. Have a professional security investigator resource you can go to for you and your family.
This article is first published in the April 2017 Issue of Los Angeles Confidential Magazine p. 119
