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Mention the words ‘bodyguard’ and ‘celebrity’ in the same breath, and chances are your imagination takes you straight to the movies — conjuring up a picture of either a broad-shouldered, stern hulk scanning the room for threats or a suave, suited protector, moving stealthily behind an A-lister. Of course, such imagery owes much to high-octane action series and films, in particular the 1992 Kevin Costner-Whitney Houston classic The Bodyguard, which made the job look glamorous and exciting, albeit a tad dangerous.

Ask Michael Chandler which of those images rings true, and he’ll laugh out loud. A retired close protection officer (CPO) — or “bodyguard” to the rest of us — Chandler is the first to debunk the myths that pop culture has built around his profession. You don’t need to be big and burly to get the work done, he states. The real skill lies not in high-speed chases or moving around with sleek gadgets but in meticulous groundwork — assessing risks, planning operations and above all, earning the trust of your client.

Listening to Chandler, who is now based in Dubai, is a bit like turning the pages of a fast-paced thriller, except this one’s rooted in real life and involves real people. Over the years, he has protected some of the world’s biggest names: Hollywood stars like Uma Thurman and Chace Crawford, Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, singers and musicians, as well as Middle Eastern royals, Russian oligarchs and billionaire CEOs. And it is this wealth of experience that shapes his latest book, The Art of Protection.

Following two previous titles on bug sweeping and covert surveillance, Chandler’s new work unpeels the complex web of personal security, exploring the frameworks, methods and mindset behind protection. In essence,  it offers a rare glimpse into what it really takes to keep high-profile lives secure.

As it turns out, physical strength is just one part of the equation. A good CPO also needs psychological maturity, cultural awareness, the ability to manage egos and expectations, and strong interpersonal skills. Then there are smaller but significant details — like the no-tattoo rule. “We don’t allow neck or hand tattoos because they look aggressive and make an officer stand out,” he explains. Simply put: forget what those thrilling movies show you; real-life bodyguarding demands invisibility and patience, not flamboyance and intimidation.

The first step

These insights, honed over more than 17 years of solid groundwork, are what Michael now shares through his training courses, books and podcasts. But his fascination with the craft began much earlier.

Growing up in North London, Michael was drawn to a career that demanded both physical and mental agility, and becoming a bodyguard ticked a lot of diverse boxes.

With that in mind, he joined the Royal Military Police, the British Army’s law enforcement arm and that which is responsible for close protection operations within the army, which proved to be the ideal training ground. There, Michael honed his skills in civilian training and intelligence-led security, with a focus on covert surveillance and counter-intelligence. By his early 20s, he was working with firms handling security for VIP events, cutting his teeth amid red carpets and flashing cameras.

Over the years, he’s helped secure  nearly 300 major entertainment events, including blockbuster premieres for the James Bond and Harry Potter franchises. “The Bond launches would often have a member of the British Royal Family in attendance,” he recalls. “And the Harry Potter films took over four cinemas in Leicester Square.” Read that as: celebrity-fuelled chaos, massive crowds and the delicate task of keeping superstars safe.

His turning point came in the early 2010s when he was approached to protect a prominent director being stalked. Instead of simply adding more guards as the filmmaker’s team had planned, Michael proposed a counter-surveillance operation to trace and defang the threat. The plan worked: the investigation eventually exposed a group in the US monitoring the filmmaker, who were later arrested with contraband. The discovery underscored how quickly the threat could have escalated had it not been identified and handled in time.

“That case changed everything,” says Michael. “I was young, skinny, not exactly the picture you’d have in mind of a security officer, but I started to be taken more seriously. My military and surveillance background helped as well. That’s when I stepped into the world of celebrity protection.”

Brush with glamour

Despite spending years in the company of Hollywood’s hottest, Michael is refreshingly grounded about his brush with stardust. “The novelty of celebrities wears off quickly,” he says when we press him about his encounters with the famous and the fabulous.

He recalls a few with genuine fondness —“Uma Thurman was lovely,” “Chace Crawford was cool” — but he isn’t so charitable towards star entourages. “It’s rarely the celebrity who’s difficult,” he says. “If anyone, it’s the managers or PRs who try to ‘own’ the celeb. Some treat security with respect, but others see them as stupid and try to tell us what we can or can’t do.”

Chandler insists, however, that the bond between a protection officer and a celeb client is usually built on trust; after all, they’re literally placing their lives in your hands! That said, maintaining professional distance is key. He recalls a young actor, close to his own age, with whom he’d attend press junkets and unwind watching NFL games. “We became good mates over time,” he says, “but I was careful not to get too close.”

Being a bodyguard to celebrities also came with cultural and jurisdictional challenges. For instance, in the UK, it’s perfectly legal for photographers to take pictures in public spaces, but for some US-born stars, that felt like a breach of security. “You have to explain those differences diplomatically and politely,” he says. And then of course, there were the selfie-seeking fans, especially ardent female fans — an occupational hazard that requires tactful handling. So how does a bodyguard win the trust of fastidious clients and their fans? “My approach is simple: be myself,” he laughs.

Making bodyguarding gender friendly

Beyond the world of red carpets and flashing cameras, Michael’s skills won him clients in other spheres too — Russian oligarchs, government defence forces, as well as Ultra High Networth Individuals from the corporate realm.

As his client list grew, so did his ambition. He wanted to shape the industry from within, not just operate in it. That vision led to the founding of The Vanquish Group in 2011, a high-end security, intelligence and counter-intelligence firm catering to private, corporate and public-sector clients. Vanquish not only handled elite protection assignments but also trained the next generation of officers through courses written by Michael himself.

One key area of his training also involved improving gender equality in the field, even offering to train women at discounted rates. But he admits it has been a challenge. The reason: security is seen as a “masculine profession”, perfect for the boys’ club.  “We have so many female clients who would be comfortable with women protection officers. The pay is great, too. But it will take time to break these mindsets since the masculine connotation is so strong,” he feels.

Tiding over crisis

Michael’s courses and security services saw massive growth in the mid-2010s with The Vanquish group setting up offices in Sydney, Canada, Singapore and other places, but the first big roadblock came during a reputational crisis in 2013. A competitor attacked him online, writing malicious information that impacted his reputation and income. It could have brought down the firm but Michael and his team decided to fight it legally, first by winning a case against Google to bring down the false content and then by reaching out to clients. Thankfully, his resilience paid off. Google redacted the fake reviews, and bit by bit, he built up again.

The learning curve through this experience and later the pandemic gave him an opportunity to assess where he wanted his business to grow. And he saw the perfect window  — bug sweeping or searching for covert monitoring devices. It was also the time when a whole new chapter opened in the UAE.

The Dubai shift

The Vanquish Group had clients in the UAE, but he realised those opportunities would not come to fruition if he didn’t have a base here. The result: incorporating a company, and with it came the resident visa. “I had come to the city on a visit, but I had no clue that I’d become a resident by the time I would leave it!” he jokes.

Though an entirely professional decision, it became personal when his wife visited the city and fell in love with it. “She didn’t want to go back!” he recalls. The UAE offered a better lifestyle with equal opportunities and great comfort, and it just made perfect sense to shift base.  “We’ve got a great life here. The best thing about the UAE is that everything is centred around customer happiness, even with official work. It’s such a refreshing approach to governance,” he says.

Work has boomed too. Michael, who has worked with royal families across the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and KSA, finds the Arab world “extremely respectful with expectations of high standards.” His UK military training, often considered the gold standard, stands him in good stead. While cultural nuances have to be taken into account, given the growth in the Middle East and the calm here, he finds the perfect balance.

While in Dubai, Michael doesn’t offer training or get requests for close protection (“it’s such a safe country”), his consultancy is sought after for bug sweeping offices. “We have clients here who  need security for their clients in cities like Singapore, Sydney or London, so they approach us for a one-stop solution.”

The AI aspect of close protection

As with every other sector, technology has made an impact in this field, though real-life bodyguarding and its screen depiction differ in this realm as well. Forget the high-tech gadgets and weapons that security is shown to entail; when it comes to the real deal, people prefer human contact. However, that hasn’t stopped Michael from focusing on automation. He even created a brand within the group called Bodyguard.London, with the idea to automate any human interface between the customer and the bodyguard but it proved to be challenging. An avatar called AIDA— Artificial Intelligence Digital Assistance — was created to handle queries from their website, calculate costs and send proposals and emails to operatives, but they soon realised people prefer speaking to a human. “They wanted assurance from a human, though a bot could answer all their queries too,” he says.

Ultimately, he believes that’s what makes the security job so special — whatever the protocol or the technology, the job of being a bodyguard to A-listers is as much psychological and human-centric as it is physical. Be it handling egos — one’s own as well as those of their charge — it’s imperative, he believes, to manage expectations early on to avoid confrontations later. “A bodyguard needs to understand that his ego needs to be put aside for the principal. At least up until a point. Of  course, we can’t be dictated to or do things that may be straight up illegal, but you need to have tact and be able to think on your feet to manage ego, personalities and use them to diffuse conflicts instead of flaring them up.”

And perhaps, that’s why protection, despite the technology, skill and craft, is also an art. 

wknd@khaleejtimes.com

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