LA Confidential interviews Kent Moyer – Privacy is Part of Executive Protection

Today we are speaking with world-acclaimed security and Executive Protection expert Kent Moyer, CEO of The World Protection Group and 001 (WPG & 001).

Q: Kent, can you tell us a bit about your background?

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 its luxury company 001, a luxury Executive Protection company that specializes in protecting high-net-worth and celebrity clients.

I graduated from Wharton Business School in Advanced Management and also studied Strategic Management of Luxury Businesses at Wharton and the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy. I work extensively in law enforcement for over 20 years as a specialist in Executive Protection and Intelligence. I recently attended HEC Paris Business School to study with Professor Jean-Noel Kapferer in an Advanced Luxury course. One week was in Paris and another in Shanghai, China.

 

Q: Tell us about your new company, 001.

001 is the American Express Black Card of Executive Protection and is the first luxury company in the Executive Protection industry. Over the past twenty years, I have studied many luxury brands, such as Armani, Porsche, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., and Pagani, and I wanted to create something new in the executive protection industry. Our business is not about guns and martial arts.

They are tools we use, but if you have to use them, you have failed. It is delivering a “Gold Standard Service” in the executive protection industry.

When I studied luxury at the world’s most prestigious business schools, I realize our high net worth clients have everything except privacy. Privacy is the most critical luxury for them. We help them disappear from threats. We created The Ritz-Carlton Gold Standard of Service model, which espouses a style of sophisticated customer service in which each of our employees is trained and retraining in delivering a WOW factor on each protection detail.

That is the ultimate way of protecting high net worth and celebrity clients. Create ultimate privacy and provide a gold standard service of protection.

 

Q: The World Protection Group & 001 are known for protecting clients’ privacy and confidentiality as well as their physical security. Can you tell us a bit about how you do this?

Celebrities and high net worth individuals have their personal information hacked regularly. A recent example was Jeff Bezos, who is the wealthiest person in America. Famous people are daily targets for hacking. We believe that Executive Protection starts with their protection of privacy and confidentiality. Privacy is luxury. We have a highly sophisticated system that we start with to remove personal information from the internet and social media.

We also set-up anonymous phones for the family so they can communicate thoroughly encrypted communications (phone, text, and email using fake names). This process can take up to a year. It involves training the client and family to maintain the privacy lifestyle we set-up for them. Protection should start with privacy for any client and then add executive protection. We immediately can start physical security but spend an enormous amount of time to creating privacy for the client.

 

Q: What else would you tell someone who wants to protect their privacy?

1. Never get mail at home! Use a PO Box (with a street address) for getting your mail. Put the property in an LLC or trust name.

2. Never give out your “real” email address. Use fake addresses that can forward to your real one.

3. Set up an Uber account with a false name.

4. Set up an Amazon account with a fake name.

5. Set up and use fake credit cards with fake names.

6. Don’t register purchases or memberships using your real name, email, or phone number.

7. Don’t use social media. If you must use posts occasionally, then be sure never to post your location. This information can be used to track you.

8. I highly recommend setting up approximately ten fake names, emails, and out-of-state phone numbers. Some apps can help you do this.

9. Protection should start with a Risk/Vulnerability Assessment and online assessment of the individual to form a protection strategy.

10. Use VPN’s on all devices and only use Duck Duck Go to search on the internet. It does not track you. There are a few easy and sophisticated ways of setting up to help you with your privacy.

 

Q: What are the 10 things the high net worth clients need to understand when they use executive protection services?

1. The billionaire client or celebrity needs to develop a relationship with the CEO of the executive protection company and give them a seat at the C-suite table. It is not the assistant’s job to manage the protection although the assistant and the EP team need to work together.

2. They must understand that there has to be a sophisticated strategy in his and family protection, and it takes time to develop.

3. Using WPG Risk/Vulnerably Assessments & that connects to 60,000 live open source intelligence feeds and identifies 50 threats in a daily tool that could change the level of protection daily.

4. We believe that hiring a protection team has to be customized for the culture and behavior of the client. It is not about sending over two big guys that carry guns. That is the caveman way of doing protection, but unfortunately still exists today. That kind of thinking presents a huge liability issue and potential lawsuits for the client.

5. The number one key to executive protection is intelligence. Intelligence drives the protection resources, and the threat can change daily, especially when the client travels internationally.

6. If the executive protection company tells you based on solid intelligence and a risk/ vulnerability assessment, they need more protection resources, and he is not just trying to sell you services. Most of the time, in 25 years of protection, I have always felt like I never had enough resources to do the job.

7. I tell all of the clients we have to be an essential part of your team. Executive Protection Agents have sometimes been treated poorly by clients. They can be more than protection and always want to find ways to make your time management and family safe.

8. The safety of the CEO, high net worth client, or celebrity’s reputation can be destroyed by one mistake from the protection team. Look on YouTube it is a treasure trove of bad Bodyguards or Buddyguard videos.

9. Executive Protection is a well-choreographed daily planned event that is proactive and preventative. It is imperative to have your schedule as early as possible to conduct advances and plans for client safety.

10. Executive Protection can be highly intrusive to a family. The way we customize our 001 protection is to carefully screen and custom hire people that will fit into your lifestyle.

Get in touch

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#1 in High End Protection Services

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Giving you the best of the best! We provide highly skilled professionals with years of military and security background and training, offering you the finest security protection available.

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Going the extra mile to give you peace of mind- that’s our goal. With exceptional quality security, personnel and programs, WPG gives you the security that no one else can. Providing the highest level of individualized service for our distinguished clientele.

About Us

WPG is a full-service international security firm that specializes in Executive Protection. Our philosophy and techniques are modeled after the United States Secret Service method of providing proactive and preventative protection. WPG has worked with some of the most high profile individuals in the world.

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Locations We Serve

United States China
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Headquarters

311 North Robertson Boulevard Suite 776
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

(310) 390-6646

Fax: 1.310.390.6649
PPO 14509 PI 28524

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