Tag: Executive Protection

Testimonial

I spent approximately eight and a half years as a Special Agent for the United States Secret Service. During that time, I participated in protective operations both domestically and in over 20 foreign countries and had the opportunity to assist in the protection of many living.

Regarding Executive Protection Institute and the 7-day Providing Executive Protection Program, to be candid and completely honest, my expectations were not that high, but I was willing to keep an open mind and assume the perspective of someone who had never been trained nor done this type of work.  After the first day and a half, I quickly realized that EPI had instructors with real world experience.  The staff and instructors were and are teaching much of the same tactics, techniques and procedures that I used during my time with the USSS and that I currently use at my Company.  Within that week, EPI was able to touch upon, even if in the smallest degree, almost every facet of executive protection. EPI did a good job in emphasizing the importance of thinking like the adversary, determining risk and realizing weaknesses and vulnerabilities.  I would have liked to have seen more time spent on the advance practical exercises, but I understand we all fall victim to cost and time constraints.

Overall, I was very impressed with the logistics, content and instructors involved in this course.  I have and will continue to recommend this course as a great training course for any and all interested in executive protection.

Joshua Quitaro, PPS
Nine Lives Associates Member

Skid Avoidance

Skid Avoidance
Protection Driving Training

At Executive Protection Institute‘s Protection Driving Program (PDP), we teach a segment on Skid Avoidance and Skid Recovery and now is a good time to share a few basic points as winter is closing in. Just like EPI’s Protection Philosophy, we urge protectors to practice the art of avoidance. We do everything in our power to keep our principal’s safe by pre-planning all their moves through advance work and by managing, minimizing, and avoiding risk. The same should be true when we transport principals using secure transportation.

Continue reading “Skid Avoidance”

Why I continue to train even after 40+ years in this profession…

Many years ago (ok, it was back in 1996) when I attended the Executive Protection Institute’s Providing Executive Protection Program (7 days, 100+ hours of training). I went into the program somewhat full of myself (ok, a lot full of myself) and I went into the program thinking I knew EVERYTHING about executive protection as I had been doing it for a few years and had attended some prior training (hell, I even had the T-shirts too). I was in for an awakening.

During the first few days, on every break, I was pretty quick to tell everyone around me how smart I was and that I pretty much knew everything they were teaching. And then we went out on a practical exercise and the instructor could see that I was a bit cocky (ok, he probably saw that I was a lot cocky), and right out of the gate, he threw a few wrenches into the mix, and within about 10 minutes, I was stumbling so bad he had to stop the exercise and ask me what the hell I was doing! It was at that moment I realized a couple important things. Number one, if you think you know everything, you can’t learn anything! So, I determined at that moment that I would always be a student of my profession and would always continue to learn.

Practical Exercise at Executive Protection Institute
Practical Exercise at Executive Protection Institute

The second lesson was that I had paid a lot of money to attend the course, so I should get my money’s worth, and learn something, instead of telling myself how much I already knew (ok, I’m a cheap bastard). I came to realize that we “don’t know, what we don’t know”. And the only way to learn what we don’t know is to continually be learning. Overtime, I also realized that one of the best ways to learn, is to teach. I often say to students in front of me in a class is that I am not there to teach, but to learn. As an educator and as an Adult Learning Facilitator, we often say that you teach dogs and kids, but you don’t teach adults; you provide facilitation for them to learn.

Now that I own and operate the Executive Protection Institute, I’m fortunate that I am able to facilitate the learning of subjects that I am quite passionate about: Executive Protection, Protection Driving, Firearms, and numerous other related security topics. I hope that all professionals continue to learn, attend training programs, seminars, and conferences, and to keep learning. I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, but I have recently met a few professionals who told me they do not need to train, because they have already been trained. Hopefully, these folks are in the minority, but I do know that most professionals are quite busy, and time is precious. But don’t forget to train and learn, no matter how old you are or how many years you’ve been doing what you do.

Jerry Heying CPP, PPS, CST

President/CEO International Protection Group, LLC
President/CEO International Protective Service Agency
Executive Director Executive Protection Institute