The corporate security office of a company in a public and increasingly personal dispute with a former business partner contacted FSO Guard three weeks before its chief executive was due in Miami. Four days of meetings in Brickell, two dinners in Miami Beach, a hotel in Brickell, arrival by private aviation. The former partner lived in Miami, had shown up uninvited at a company event elsewhere, and had sent messages the company’s lawyers considered concerning. The brief was short: keep the principal safe, keep the schedule, keep it invisible.
Client details are confidential. Names, the company, the hotel and the dates are withheld and some details are generalized. The profile reflects executive protection details FSO Guard runs in Brickell and Miami Beach.
Advance work
In the week before arrival a supervisor and the lead agent visited every location on the schedule. At the hotel: the arrival route from the garage that avoided the lobby, the elevator bank, the floor plan, an introduction to the director of security and an agreement on how the hotel would handle anyone asking for the principal by name. At the three offices: reception procedures, the garages, the freight elevators, the nearest hospital from each. At the two restaurants: a table with a wall behind it and a view of the door, the kitchen exit, where the car would wait. Each location got a one-page sheet with photographs, and each day’s plan had a primary route, an alternate and the hospitals along both.
The client’s security office shared a photograph and a description of the former partner and his vehicle. Every agent and the driver had it.
The detail
- Lead agent with the principal from the aircraft door to the hotel room door, Class G armed, in a suit, seated in the vehicle beside the driver or, in meetings, in the reception area.
- Security driver in a black SUV, with the routes, staged before every departure and never more than a minute from the door.
- Second agent in a follow car for the first two days and for both dinners, dropping to one vehicle for the office-only days when the risk was lower.
- Supervisor on call, coordinating with the client’s security office and the hotel, and the single point of contact for the principal’s executive assistant.
How the four days went
Arrival was on the ramp at Opa-locka. The SUV met the aircraft with the FBO’s clearance, and the principal was at the hotel 40 minutes after landing without entering a building on the way. The office days were routine, which is the goal: garage to elevator to reception, the agent in a chair by the door during meetings, the car waiting in the garage.
The one event of note came on the third evening. As the vehicle approached the restaurant in Miami Beach, the follow car’s agent saw a man on the sidewalk near the entrance who matched the photograph. He was not certain. He said so on the radio, the driver continued past without slowing, and the lead agent told the principal there would be a five-minute delay. The vehicle circled while the supervisor called the restaurant’s manager, who confirmed a man had asked at the host stand whether a party under the company’s name had a reservation and had been told there was none, because the reservation was in a different name, as the advance plan required. The man left. The principal had dinner, at the table with the wall behind it, and was not told the details until the next morning. No confrontation, no police report, no story.
The exit from the second dinner, on the last night, went through the kitchen to the car at the service entrance. Not because of a threat, but because a group of the principal’s own industry acquaintances had arrived and he did not want a 30-minute conversation. Executive protection is also about time.
What the client received
A daily summary to the client’s security office each night, the incident note from the third evening with times, and, after the visit, the advance sheets for the hotel, offices and restaurants so the client’s own team could reuse them. The company has since used FSO Guard for two further visits and for a family office arrangement covering the principal’s relatives when they are in Florida.
What we would do differently
We would ask for the principal’s social plans, not only the official schedule. The second dinner had guests the principal knew and we did not, and although the advance covered the venue, a guest list would have let us plan the exit before the evening rather than during it. It is now a standard question at the first call.
Related services
This assignment is our executive protection service with armed close protection agents, a security driver and chauffeured vehicle, and the ramp-side arrival we arrange with our private aviation partner. For clients who need the same standard for their families, see VIP security services. To plan a detail in Brickell, Miami Beach or anywhere in Florida, call 888.881.8099 or send a request. More assignments: all case studies.