Providing effective protective security without wrapping the client within a claustrophobic bubble is inherently difficult. You need to be prepared for anything and everything – usually with little to no warning – and at the same time enable clients to get on with their lives without feeling encumbered by ever-present protection teams. A cornerstone of the Allied Universal® Executive Protection & Intelligence Services approach is our ongoing dedication to adapting our services to the client’s personal …
We talk to a number of companies, large and small, about executive protection programs every week. Sometimes, the conversation starts something like this: “Executive protection? Yeah, we tried that a few times, but it didn’t really work out for us, so we gave up the program.” At times, the conversation ends there. There are other times when this makes for the beginning of a great dialogue. The challenge: A Fortune 500 company approached us because they were not satisfied with the management and execution …
We have provided safe travel and other services for a number of philanthropic organizations over the years. In terms of objectives, these projects are quite similar to any other EP program we deliver: Our goal is to keep the principals and others in their entourages safe, happy and productive wherever their travels take them. In terms of style, however, corporate and NGO clients can be different. Travels with philanthropic organizations often take us far off the beaten track in developing countries into …
Hurricane Odile was the most powerful storm ever to hit Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. When she swept across the Cabo San Lucas resort area in September, 2014, Odile packed winds of up to 125 mph (200 km/hr.) and dumped more than 12 inches (320 mm) of rain. The exceptionally violent storm wreaked havoc across the tourist region. Flooding was extensive, windows in hotels and homes shattered like eggshells, and falling trees and power poles crippled communications. The area was completely without drinking water …
Many companies routinely need to send staff abroad for periods of regular, short-term stays. The travelers can be anyone from managers setting up a subsidiary to technicians installing new production equipment. These “global commuters” are often based in a foreign country for a week or two, then home for a while, then back on the road. When such travel regularly takes employees to developing countries where the security situation can be turbulent, questions of duty of care arise even though the stays are …
Executive protection and event security are two core things Allied Universal® Executive Protection & Intelligence Services offer. Rapid response, smooth travel logistics and international expertise are another three core services that our clients rely on. On most days, we’re delivering some combination of these five elements above somewhere in the world. Last year, we delivered all of them and more in an intensive three-week international roadshow that launched the world’s biggest ever IPO. The …
No matter how much forward thinking a company does, we are all sometimes surprised by a sudden turn of events. It may be a competitor making a surprise move, civil unrest that balloons into a sweeping socio-political upheaval, or something as simple as a key employee getting in a car accident. In 2014, a hostile group announced its intentions to harm the staff and interests of a major corporation thousands of miles away. The challenge: Not content to issue a general threat, the group issued a string of …
Knowing exactly where key employees are is a cornerstone of ensuring their security. Whether in proactive planning or in solving emergency situations, the principal’s location is a critical starting point for all EP activities. Our globalized economy adds some complexity to the issue of location. Executives are traveling to ever more distant destinations. Expats are stationed in emerging markets where infrastructure and governments are more fragile than at home. And while companies have a duty of care to …
We regularly work with high net worth individuals, families and their offices. In many ways, the EP and security needs of these prominent families are similar to those of corporations. After all, these high net worth individuals are often founders of highly successful companies, and in that sense share many characteristics with the C-suite principals for whom we typically provide EP. In important ways, however, families are not the same as corporations, and neither are their protection needs. Parents would …
We help clients with emergency evacuations practically every year, and 2014 was no exception. Moving people from an unsecured location quickly, safely and discreetly is always a challenge. Medical evacuations from areas of unrest can be even more complex – especially when cultural and linguistic barriers are added to the equation. And when all these things came together in northern Yemen at the height of an armed insurgency, things really got interesting.' The challenge: We were requested to evacuate a …