Interview with Thomas Rossi, CEO of Wagram Protection

The executive protection agent (or “bodyguard”) ensures the safety and security of politicians, CEOs, royal families, or celebrities. The private activity of executive protection concerns exclusively the last three categories of people, the politicians being essentially protected by police officers. In France, Philippe Auguste was the first to use bodyguard services in 1192. Today, the profession has changed and is strictly regulated. All agents must hold the professional French card of executive protection agent issued by the National Council for Private Security Activities (in French: CNAPS).

How to recognize a good executive protection agent?

The profession has a great heterogeneity in the level of services provided and also knows the disadvantages of uberization. But Wagram Protection is one of those executive protection companies that develops a high-end image and pushes its teams to train all year long. The agency knows how essential its clients’ image is and expects from its agents respect of procedures, etiquette, and great listening skills.

For Thomas Rossi, founder of Wagram Protection, an executive protection agent, also called a close protection officer, must allow his client to carry out his activities safely without worrying about a possible danger. In strict compliance with the law, he must know how to adapt quickly and facilitate the logistics of the person to be protected. Observation and empathy are also important, some clients ask not to feel the presence of their bodyguard while others prefer their proximity.

When the executive protection agent has to adapt to each of his clients.

While Wagram Protection is known for protecting American celebrities, including singers, models, and athletes in France, the company is also regularly solicited by senior business leaders from the US, and royal families from the Middle East. For all these persons, the same protocol is applied: the executive protection agent (or “EP agent”) inspects each place that the client (or “principal”) will visit and facilitates, in collaboration with the security-trained driver, all his movements. Itineraries, emergency exits, layout of the premises, nothing is left to chance to anticipate any event that could affect the security of the protectee.

The EP agent is thus often brought to share the intimacy of the persons he protects, whether during red carpets, photo shoots, catwalks, concerts, travels, or even at the restaurant. In this respect, the founder of Wagram Protection likes to define his EP company in 3 words: “professionalism, transparency, and loyalty”.

Training of executive protection agents in France.

Thomas Rossi joined the private security industry in 2007 after several years with the French Army. He is a graduate of the University of Leicester in Security and Risk Management and has spent many years abroad on behalf of major international groups and diplomatic missions.

For anyone wishing to become an EP agent in France, a certificate of professional qualification and the authorization to provide executive protection services by the CNAPS are mandatory. The hand-picked Wagram Protection agents also meet essential prerequisites such as mastering a foreign language, practicing a combat sport or a martial art, as well as maintaining an excellent physical condition and an irreproachable presentation.

Finally, unlike the vast majority of private security agencies in France, Wagram Protection does not propose manned guarding security services, but focuses exclusively on executive protection operations. In just a few years, Wagram Protection has thus become a reference among French executive protection companies.