There has been a great deal of talk on social media about how the industry is growing at an exponential rate. We agree, but we ask the question, in what sector of the profession is it growing, and what sector is increasing their spending on Executive Protection?
To find the answer to those questions, we need to look at an article published in July of this year mentioning that Facebook spent $13.4 million on Mark Zuckerberg’s Personal Security. That’s an increase of nearly $3 million compared to the previous year and does not reflect the cost of protecting Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and other Facebook executives.
The number of $13.4 million spent on Mark Zuckerberg’s personal security came from Facebooks Security Exchange Commission (SEC) 14 A Proxy statement. ISDA took that number and presented it in a different manner; we looked at the amount of money spent in the year 2020 to protect Mr. Zuckerberg and his family and did some quick calculations. We create graphs representing how much money was paid per hour and per day on personal Security for Mark Zuckerberg.
Looking at the cost of personal security for only Mark Zuckerberg, and if we assume 365-day coverage – the $13,439,634 for personal security works out to $36,821 a day, and if you use a 24 hour day, that works out to $1534 an Hour.
We created a line chart, and looking at the chart, and you can see the sharp increase in protection spending from 2019 to 2020.
Facebook increased Personal Security Spending for Zuckerberg from 2018 to 2019 by a mere 5%. But from 2019 to 2020, spending increased to 28%. If we compare 2018 to 2020, Facebook increased the money spent to protect Zuckerberg by 35%.
The cost per hour in 2020 was $1534.21 compared to the cost per hour of $1136.63, which also represents an increase of 35% from 2017 to 2020.
Executive Protection Cost of Fortune Top Ten Companies
The International Security Driver Association looked at six top fortune companies’ 2020 SEC 14 A filings. We came up with the total spending for the executive personal security of over 21 million dollars, which is $57,770 a day (365 days) and $2407/hour (24 Hours). The numbers are impressive.
Our Fortune six company sample increased Personal Security Spending for their executives from 2018 to 2019 by 16%. But from 2019 to 2020, spending increased to 42%; if we compare 2018 to 2020, these Fortune companies increased the money spent to protect their executive by 64%.
Keep in mind this is one sector of the profession – Executive Protection in the Corporate Community. We have been working in this market for more than 48 years – historically, they will spend the money to mitigate the risk, have the money to spend, and the most critical issue they know how to mitigate risk.
Also interesting is that Facebook plans to unveil a new proposal that will allow non-employee directors to receive personal security details from time to time at the May 26, 2021 shareholder meeting. In January and February 2021, the company cited the “high level of scrutiny faced by Facebook and their executive officers and directors, as well as the dynamic and charged atmosphere following the 2020 U.S. elections and the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021” for the need for higher security for top execs at Facebook.
The Proxy segment separates the cost of security while traveling and residential security.
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