King Safety and Security (KSS) runs security for CEOs and senior executives as a single managed function, led by an assessment and integrated with the corporate security management a company already has.
Built around the executive
Protection at work, at home and on the move
Led by an assessment
The function follows the evidence, not a package
Integrated
Works with your existing security management and functions
One accountable lead
A clear point of contact for the company
One security function for the people at the top
Senior executives are exposed in ways a company’s workplace security does not usually reach. Their risk follows them home, into their families’ routines, onto aircraft and into hotels, and into what can be learned about them online.
In many companies these are handled separately, by different teams and suppliers, or by nobody in particular.
KSS brings them together. Close protection, residential security, travel and intelligence are designed from one assessment and managed as one function, so the company has one accountable provider for the security of its CEO or C-suite. It is the same model KSS runs for family offices, built around a corporate lens: a company’s governance, its duty of care and the security arrangements it already has.
When companies usually ask
- An executive’s public profile rises through an appointment, a transaction or media attention
- A threat, approach or incident involving an executive or their family
- A restructuring, dispute or announcement likely to draw hostility
- Travel to higher-risk locations becomes part of the role
- A board wants to know whether existing arrangements are still adequate
Who it answers to
Chief Executive
Protection that stays low-profile and fits around how they work and live, including their family.
Chief Operating Officer
One accountable provider, clear responsibilities and less supplier coordination.
Human Resources
Duty of care for senior people, with sensitive personal and family information handled properly.
General Counsel
A recorded rationale for each material measure, clear authority and escalation, and reporting that withstands scrutiny.
What the function can include
Every function is built from the disciplines its assessment calls for. Most do not need all of them.
Close protection
Close protection for the CEO or senior executives, staffed by operatives selected through KSS’s proprietary Selection Day process.
Residential security
Residential security risk assessments of executives’ homes, and residential security teams where the risk calls for them.
Secure travel
Travel risk management, advance work and secure transportation.
Intelligence
Protective intelligence, digital risk and personal vulnerability assessments, showing who could take an interest in an executive and what they could learn.
Investigations and technical security
Surveillance and investigations and TSCM where the requirement calls for them.
Crisis readiness
Governance
Written procedures, clear authority and escalation, and reporting to a named sponsor or the board.
Offices and operational sites
Where an assessment finds a need at offices or operational sites, Secure Spaces project-manages the physical security work.
Working with your existing corporate security
KSS does not need to replace what is working. Many companies already have a security manager, a facilities team or a guarding contract, and these usually concentrate on buildings and staff. KSS integrates with them, taking on the executive function and adding specialist capability where it is needed. Responsibilities are agreed at the outset, so that nothing is duplicated and nothing falls between the teams.
Where KSS provides close protection or residential security operatives, they are selected through KSS’s proprietary Selection Day process. We do not absorb incumbent personnel, because the selection standard cannot be inherited.
It starts with an assessment
There is no standard corporate security function. Before we recommend anything, we assess the people and exposure in scope:
- Risk judgements: who could plausibly take an interest in the executive, how they would act and what the consequences would be
- Site surveys: homes, offices and the other places the executive regularly uses
- Pattern of life: the routines and movements an observer could learn and exploit
- Travel risk: where the executive goes, how they get there and how predictably
- Digital exposure: what can be established from public and commercially available sources
- Existing arrangements: what the company already has, and what is worth keeping
The recommendations design the function: which disciplines it needs, at what depth and led by whom. KSS then builds and runs it. Two executives in similar roles can need very different functions, and sometimes the right answer is less security, not more.
Who leads it
The function has one accountable lead, according to the company’s wishes and the requirement: a member of KSS’s senior management team, a named account holder, or an embedded Head of Security. Behind them sit specialist capability across every discipline and senior KSS leadership.
How it runs
1. Assess
Establish the context and evaluate the risk.
2. Design
Turn the findings into a function, with the rationale for each material measure recorded.
3. Implement
Mobilise, close immediate gaps and build procedures and escalation.
4. Govern
Run the function to a reporting rhythm agreed at the outset.
5. Review
Reassess whenever the executive’s profile, role, homes or travel change.
KSS’s methodology is aligned to ISO 31000. Protective operations are aligned to BS 8507, and personnel vetting exceeds BS 7858 by adding open-source screening of every candidate.
Indicative example
How a corporate function can take shape
An illustrative scenario, not an account of a specific client.
Consider a listed company whose chief executive’s profile rises sharply after a contested restructuring. The company has a capable security manager who looks after its offices, and a guarding contractor. Nobody is responsible for the executive’s home, family routines, travel or online exposure, and the general counsel asks whether the company is meeting its duty of care.
An assessment might find that the workplace arrangements are sound, but that the chief executive’s address and travel patterns are easy to establish. The resulting function might keep the security manager and contractor, and add a residential security risk assessment, close protection for selected events and travel, digital exposure work and a regular report to the general counsel. For another company, the same assessment could point somewhere quite different.
Proven across six continents
Since 2014, KSS has delivered security across six continents, for listed corporates, family offices, UHNW families, royal and ruling households, heads of state and senior government, elite professional sport, NGOs and international organisations. Client identities are never disclosed. Further redacted case studies are on our case studies page.
FAQs
A security capability built around a company’s CEO or senior executives and run as one operation: assessment, close protection, residential security, travel and intelligence, managed by one accountable provider. What it contains is decided by an assessment of the risk.
No. KSS integrates with existing corporate security management and functions, and responsibilities are agreed at the outset. Any close protection or residential security operatives KSS provides are selected through KSS’s proprietary Selection Day process.
It varies. The request can come from the Chief Executive, the Chief Operating Officer, Human Resources or the General Counsel, and KSS reports to whichever sponsor the company nominates.
Yes. A company can commission an assessment without retaining ongoing services. KSS is set up to go on to run the function the assessment designs.
It can, where the assessment calls for it, including residential security risk assessments and residential security teams. Personal and family information is handled under stringent processes.
Largely, for the executive side of security. The function can supply senior security leadership, embedded or fractional, with the disciplines and structure beneath it.
Not as a conventional cybersecurity provider. KSS assesses and reduces digital exposure. Where network security, forensics or incident response are needed, we bring in specialist partners.
Cost follows the design: the disciplines involved, the leadership model, the size of any protective team and the hours of coverage.
Yes. Functions travel with the executive or the business, anchored by our Toronto-based subsidiary in Canada and North America and, elsewhere, by thoroughly vetted in-country partners working under KSS leadership.
Every function starts with an assessment.
Tell us how security works for your executives today. We will assess it, show you what the evidence calls for, and design the function KSS would run for you.
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