Executive Safeguards

To those in the industry, executive security means the bodyguard business. But perhaps it's testament to Southwest Florida's small-town atmosphere that, for all the wealth and power that flow through affluent communities of the region, it isn't a booming business locally, at least for the formerly Naples-based Control Risk International. The company, about four years old, recently moved to the Orlando and Daytona areas, where it has training facilities.

"In the two years I've been with the company, I can't say we've done any work in the Naples area," says senior instructor David Gramlin.

Up to 90 percent of the company's work isn't even in the United States. The roughly 100 personnel-independent contractors specifically trained by the company-are "all over the world," protecting executives and dignitaries from organized crime in Eastern Europe, and from other threats in the Middle East. "Oil companies are getting more and more involved with close protection," Gramlin says.

Although U.S. celebrities use bodyguards, they are often simply status symbols, he adds. "They're just window dressing."

Bodyguards today don't typically fit the mobster or muscle-bound image. They have to blend in and rely on their brains. And unlike law enforcement, which largely reacts to incidents, executive security's modus operandi is proactive planning, so a client won't get into a threatening situation.

"The U.S. does have quite a bit of crime," Gramlin says, but it's mostly random. "As far as specific threats against clients, it's not that big an issue."