Executive Protection for San Francisco and Silicon Valley Clients, Abroad and at Home
What a Bay Area client gets from us, and what they do not.
San Francisco and the Valley travel differently from New York and Los Angeles. The wealth is newer and quieter, the principals are rarely recognized on a European street and would like to keep it that way, and the exposure is less the crowd than the information: who knows the itinerary, which hotel staff know the name, what the children post, whether the photograph from the restaurant ends up somewhere. The threat picture for a founder in Rome or Paris is low; the privacy picture is the whole job. And the Bay Area security team that works in Atherton cannot work in Europe: no European country recognizes a California BSIS guard card, an exposed firearms permit or a US company's insurance.
What we do is deliver protection built around privacy, through officers licensed where you land, from one desk, on Pacific time. One licensed officer, usually at the wheel of an executive car, dressed for the setting and never a visible team, which in Europe draws exactly the attention a founder is paying to avoid. Hotels briefed on who may know the name, itineraries shared on a need-to-know basis with the licensed partner, staff at the villa under NDA, and the plan written with your chief of staff or head of security. A proposal in EUR with the USD beside it, the figure final. At home, the same desk coordinates licensed Bay Area partners for Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside, Hillsborough and Napa. Send the itinerary; a person reads it the same morning, your morning.
- Officers licensed in each country you land in: SIA in the UK, CNAPS in France, GPG in Italy, Ministry of the Interior in Spain, licensed companies in Switzerland and the Gulf
- Low profile by design: one officer dressed for the setting, usually at the wheel, never a visible team; in Europe a team creates the crowd it is meant to prevent
- Privacy as the deliverable: itineraries on a need-to-know basis, hotels briefed on the name, villa staff under NDA, photographs planned out of the day
- Replies on Pacific time, usually within two hours and always within 24; the flight from SFO is tracked and the arrival planned around it
- Proposal in EUR with an indicative USD figure beside it; payment by card including American Express, or transfer; the proposal figure is final
- At home: licensed Bay Area partners under BSIS rules for Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside, Hillsborough, Napa and the Peninsula, coordinated by the same desk
What Bay Area clients ask before they book.
Can my security team work in Europe?
As staff and advisors, yes. As protection, no. The UK, France, Italy and Spain each license officers locally and recognize no California BSIS card, exposed firearms permit or US insurance. Your head of security or chief of staff writes the plan with us; the licensed local officer carries it out.
I am not famous. Why would I need this?
Most Bay Area clients are not recognized in Europe and the threat picture is low; the reasons they book are privacy, logistics and a standard. One licensed officer at the wheel means no taxi line, no walk from the car with the bags, no hotel lobby you did not choose, a schedule that holds, and someone who notices the one person who has noticed you. Many need only a driver and a briefing, and we say so.
How do you keep the trip private?
Itineraries shared with the licensed partner on a need-to-know basis, the hotel briefed on who may know the name and which entrance to use, villa and boat staff under NDA, restaurants chosen for the table out of the window line, photographs planned out of the day, and nothing published, posted or kept by us beyond the invoice.
What does it cost in dollars?
Close protection in Western Europe starts from EUR 850 per day for one officer on a twelve-hour block, with the executive vehicle added. The indicative USD figure appears beside every EUR figure for visitors from the US. The proposal is in EUR and the figure on it is final.
Will you answer on Pacific time?
Yes. A person reads every message and replies usually within two hours and always within 24, on Pacific time as well as European. A message from Palo Alto at ten in the evening is answered the same night.
Do you cover the Bay Area itself?
Through licensed California partners under BSIS rules, yes: security drivers in the city and on the Peninsula, residential cover in Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside, Hillsborough and Napa, event work, and armed officers where the assessment and California law allow. The same desk coordinates home and abroad.
The services Bay Area clients book most.
Security Driver in London, Paris and Rome
One licensed officer at the wheel of an executive car for the arrival, the meetings, the dinners and the late return, dressed for the setting and never a visible team.
The Privacy Plan
Need-to-know itineraries, hotels briefed on the name and the entrance, staff under NDA, tables out of the window line, and nothing kept beyond the invoice.
Switzerland and the Mountains
Geneva, Zurich, St. Moritz, Gstaad and Verbier for the conferences and the ski weeks, through licensed Swiss partners, with winter roads and chalet cover.
Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha
Licensed officers and security drivers for the Gulf, where Bay Area founders increasingly raise and build, coordinated from the same desk as Europe.
Pacific Heights, Atherton, Napa
Licensed Bay Area partners for drivers, residences, events and the Napa weekend, coordinated by the desk that already knows your family.
The Rest of the Trip
Hotels with the right entrance, tables with the right table, access and the airport, handled by the team that holds the protection.
Why the Atherton detail stops at the jet bridge
A California executive protection agent holds a BSIS guard card, often an exposed firearms permit, and works for a licensed California company with California insurance. None of that has standing in London, Paris, Rome, Madrid or Zurich. The United Kingdom licenses protection through the SIA and the police are entitled to ask; France through the CNAPS, officer by officer; Italy through Prefettura-authorized institutes; Spain under Law 5/2014; Switzerland canton by canton through licensed companies. A Bay Area agent working a Paris hotel lobby is unlicensed, uninsured and, if stopped, the reason a trip ends early. The model that works: your head of security or chief of staff keeps the strategy and writes the plan with us; we provide the officer who is legal, insured and English-speaking where you are. The standard travels. The license does not.
Executive protection in Europe for US clientsLow profile by design: why one officer and never a team
A founder who has spent a decade avoiding attention does not want to arrive in Rome with it. In Europe, a visible security team is the single fastest way to be noticed: it tells every phone in the piazza that someone worth photographing has arrived. The European model, and ours, is one licensed officer dressed for the setting, usually at the wheel of an executive car, moving with the principal rather than behind, reading the street and the room without announcing either. For a family, a second officer joins for a villa or a crowded day and looks like a friend of the family. For a conference week in Davos or Geneva, the officer is the driver. The threat picture for a Bay Area client in Western Europe is low; the attention picture is managed by staying ordinary, and one good person does that better than four.
Bodyguard in GenevaPrivacy as the deliverable: itineraries, hotels, staff and photographs
For most Bay Area clients the exposure is informational, and the plan treats it that way. The itinerary is shared with the licensed partner on a need-to-know basis, by leg, never as a whole document. The hotel is briefed in advance on which staff may know the name, which entrance the car uses and that the lobby is not where you wait. Villa, yacht and chalet staff are under NDA before the family arrives. Restaurants are chosen for the table out of the window line and the door that is not on the street. Photographs are planned out of the day rather than argued about in it, and the officer notices the one phone that is pointed. We keep nothing afterwards beyond the invoice: no newsletter, no record, no story. Clients tell us that last line is the one they did not expect.
Bodyguard in ParisSwitzerland and the Alps: Geneva, Zurich, Davos and the ski weeks
The Bay Area goes to Switzerland for the conferences, the banks and the mountains, and Switzerland is at Level 1, the lowest advisory the State Department gives any country. The value of a licensed officer there is logistics and discretion, not threat: a driver who knows the road from Zurich to St. Moritz in January, a chalet with staff you have not met, the conference week in Davos where the schedule is the exposure, and the mountain roads that are a safety decision rather than a comfort one. Our Swiss partners are licensed canton by canton, English- and German- or French-speaking, and briefed from the same desk that handles your London leg. St. Moritz, Gstaad, Verbier and Courchevel across the border are handled the same way.
Bodyguard in St. MoritzThe flight from SFO, and the first hour on the ground
San Francisco flies nonstop to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dubai and Doha, and to Rome in season, and the eleven-hour flight lands in the European afternoon tired. The arrival hour is the one most trips get wrong: everyone carrying everything, a crowd offering taxis, the hotel not yet ready, a photographer who knew a name was on the manifest. We track the flight from departure, meet you inside the terminal, take the exit the crowd is not watching, count the luggage onto the car and drive you to a hotel whose security knows a car is coming and which entrance to open. For a founder with a dinner that evening, it is the dinner; for a family off the long flight with children, it is the week.
Is Europe safe for Americans right now?At home: Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside and Napa, from the same desk
A family that travels to Europe three times a year and lives on the Peninsula does not want two security relationships. For the weeks at home we coordinate licensed California partners under BSIS rules: security drivers in the city and down the Peninsula, residential cover in Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside, Hillsborough and Los Altos Hills, event work, the Napa weekend, and armed officers where the assessment and California law allow. The desk that planned your Paris week knows your family, your staff and your standard of privacy, and the Bay Area work runs to the same written plan. Our San Francisco chauffeur page describes the home service.
Chauffeur and security driver in San FranciscoWhen San Francisco clients travel, and what the detail needs.
Davos and the Alps
The conference week, then St. Moritz or Gstaad: a security driver who knows the winter roads, chalet cover, licensed Swiss partners.
The private trip
Tuscany, Provence, Lake Como, Ibiza and the Greek islands: a villa with staff under NDA, a driver who knows the road, and a week nobody knows you are there.
London, Paris, Lisbon
The tech and finance weeks in Europe: a security driver per city, the schedule held, the dinners quiet.
Families
Rome, Paris and London with children in the Easter crowds: a car for the days, early entry, an officer who keeps the group together and out of the photographs.
London and the shopping weeks
Mayfair and Avenue Montaigne with something to lose: the bags carried, the car at every door, the watch worn at dinner.
At home
Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside and Napa: licensed Bay Area partners for drivers, residences and events, from the same desk.
Itinerary, privacy plan, officers, arrival, nothing.
The itinerary
Dates, cities, party, what is public and what is not, and what your head of security or chief of staff already knows. Under NDA from the first message, answered on Pacific time.
The privacy plan
Who knows what and when: the licensed partner by leg, the hotel on the name and the entrance, the staff under NDA, the restaurants by their doors, the photographs planned out. One figure in EUR with the USD beside it.
Officers matched
Licensed where they work, English-speaking, selected for the setting: one officer who looks like a driver, a colleague, a friend of the family, never a team.
The arrival
The flight from SFO tracked, met inside the terminal, the exit the crowd is not watching, the car at the door, the hotel briefed on which entrance to open.
The program
One coordinator across every city, officers handing over at each border, the plan held when the schedule moves, the one pointed phone noticed.
Nothing
No report unless you ask for one, no newsletter, no follow-up calls, no record beyond the invoice.
“In the Valley the goal is not to be noticed. In Europe, one good officer is how you stay that way; four is how you stop.”
What executive protection abroad costs a Bay Area client.
Professional close protection in Italy, France, Spain and the UK starts from EUR 850 per day for a single principal on twelve-hour cover, the market base, with the executive vehicle added as its own line; Swiss and Gulf bases are confirmed on inquiry. A security driver with a car is the default Bay Area booking; a second officer for a villa or a crowded day, residential cover by the night and the Alpine weeks sit above the base; a multi-city program receives one figure. The indicative USD figure appears beside each EUR figure for visitors from the US; the proposal and the invoice are in EUR and the proposal figure is final.
Allow seven days; under 48 hours carries an urgency fee and no guarantee. Payment by card, including American Express, or by transfer, invoiced by Algoz FZ-LLC. See also what a bodyguard costs in US dollars and executive protection in Europe for US clients.
Send the dates. We reply with a figure.
A person reads every message and replies, usually within two hours and always within 24. No commitment, no obligation.
Send the itinerary. We send the plan, on Pacific time, and keep nothing afterwards.
Share your dates, cities and party, or have your chief of staff, head of security or family office write to us directly. You receive a written proposal with a final figure in EUR and the USD beside it, usually within two hours and always within 24, confidential from the first message.
Enquire WhatsAppThe Bay Area clients who use us.
A European week without attention
London, Paris and Lisbon for the meetings and the dinners: one officer at the wheel, the hotel briefed, the table out of the window line, nothing posted.
The private summer
A villa in Tuscany or Provence with children and staff under NDA: residential cover, a female officer, a driver who knows the road, one figure for the month.
Davos, Geneva and Zurich
The conference week and the banks: a security driver who knows the winter roads, licensed Swiss partners, the schedule held.
A plan the principal will accept
Low profile by design, one officer and never a team, with a proposal the office can read and a privacy plan the principal will not notice.
The paperwork and the quiet
Line-item proposals, licensed companies named in each country, officers licensed where they work, a report only if wanted, nothing kept.
Pacific Heights, Atherton, Napa
Licensed Bay Area partners for drivers, residences and events, coordinated by the desk that already knows the family.
Everywhere the Bay Area flies, and at home.
London; Paris, Provence and the Riviera; Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Lake Como and the Amalfi Coast; Lisbon and Porto; Madrid, Barcelona and Ibiza; Geneva, Zurich, Davos, St. Moritz, Gstaad and Verbier; Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha; and at home in Pacific Heights, Atherton, Woodside, Hillsborough, Los Altos Hills and Napa through licensed California partners. Read also our pages for clients from Los Angeles, New York and Boston.
Pages for a Bay Area client.
Algoz FZ-LLC (Trade License 5033995 | TRN 105119056700001) is licensed by RAKEZ for Businessmen Services and Lifestyle Development Consultancy. Operational services such as security, transportation and concierge are delivered through vetted, licensed specialist partners, selected, contracted and overseen by Algoz. All operational execution is performed exclusively by licensed third-party partners holding the necessary local permits. We provide direct assistance and support in partnership with regulated local providers, in compliance with local law. Clients remain responsible for obtaining any required approvals. Armed services require a minimum 30-day lead time for authorisation, which may be refused. All activities comply with UAE law and RAKEZ regulations.