Protecting the Executive

A Strategic Guide to Designing a Modern Executive Protection Program

Executive protection has shifted from a reactive service to a business critical security function. Today’s executives face constant exposure across physical, digital, reputational, and internal risk domains. Traditional, travel focused protection models no longer reflect how threats emerge or escalate.

This guide provides a practical framework for building or modernizing an executive protection program. It outlines how leading organizations assess risk, structure repeatable operations, integrate intelligence, and coordinate across legal, HR, IT, and communications to protect leadership while enabling business continuity.

In this guide you will discover:

• The strategic imperative behind modern executive protection
• How to assess and elevate the maturity of your executive protection program
• A practical framework for risk driven, intelligence led protection operations
• Cross functional coordination requirements for legal, HR, IT, and communications
• Approaches for measuring effectiveness and demonstrating value to executives

What’s Inside:

• Executive Protection Fundamentals: What executive protection is today and why legacy models fall short
• Risk Assessment & Program Maturity: How to evaluate current capabilities and identify priority gaps
• Designing Repeatable Protection Models: Frameworks for scalable planning, threat modeling, and operational playbooks
• Intelligence Integration: Using OSINT and threat intelligence to anticipate exposure and preempt escalation
• Threat Surface Taxonomy: Mapping physical, digital, reputational, and insider risk to executive roles
• Operational Structures & Staffing Models: How to organize teams, define roles, and build standard operating procedures
• Cross Functional Alignment: Integrating executive protection with HR, Legal, IT, and Communications
• Metrics, ROI & Reporting: Key performance indicators, dashboards, and narratives that secure budget and executive support