Icon - Behind the Bodyguard Business

CORPORATE ICON

Finance and Commerce

By Bob Geiger

Elijah Shaw, a direct man who keeps steady eye contact, is comfortable watching for signs of danger when rap and hip-hop musicians or supermodel Naomi Campbell are in the spotlight.

The nationally renowned bodyguard has called Minnesota home for 10 years, but his work has taken him to the capitals of glitz and glam, places like Hollywood and Las Vegas.

“I really like the change of seasons here,” said Shaw, chief executive and founder of St. Paul-based security firm Icon.  “When you deal withHollywood all the time it kind of wears on your soul.”

Shaw, who prefers the more polite moniker of personal security executive, has hired a Minneapolis public relations agency, Maccabee Group, to help attract more corporate clients in time for the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul next September.

He said Icon will provide event coordination and security for companies that sponsor open houses during the four-day event at the Xcel Energy

Shaw’s motives for hiring Maccabee are both personal and professional.

Personal, because he spent 231 days on the road last year, working long hours to provide security for such performers as Usher, 50 Cent and Michael Bolton. 

From a professional standpoint, he wants to broaden Icon’s image so prospective clients will see him as more than a bodyguard-to-the-stars.  His goal is to attract more business from corporations.

“The biggest reason is to increase my brand awareness nationwide,” Shaw said. “We’re starting on a local level, then going national.”

He sees the Republican convention as a good place to start.

“Everybody who does protection and security [in the Twin Cities] is going to be tapped for the convention.  I’ve signed on the dotted line for a couple [of corporations] and want to make sure that I get publicity for my company.”

He would not name the Fortune 500 corporate clients that he has signed up so far.

Icon maintains a low profile in a less-than-iconic brick office building inSt. Paul’s Midway neighborhood. 

For years, Shaw said he has been told that his company would quadruple in size if he relocated to New York, Florida or

“I’ve always loved Minnesota.  It’s the place I come to recharge when I want to escape all the hype,” he said. 

This year, he hopes to decrease the percentage of Icon’s fees from celebrities and performing artist from 75 percent to 45 percent of business, replacing them with corporate customers. 

That’s where the Maccabee Group comes in.   Paul Maccabee, who is president of the firm, said he has never handled a security client before.

He intends to pitch Shaw to business magazines, including Forbes, as a “road warrior” who is a frequent flyer, like many corporate executives.  Shaw’s pro bono work for Twin Cities women’s shelters also will be emphasized. 

Icon, which has $3 million in revenue last year, already works for such corporate clients as Edina-based International Dairy Queen, Ford Motor Co.’s St. Paul plant, which is scheduled to close in 2008, and for all Perkins Family Restaurants & Bakeries in Minnesota.

In all, Icon has 12 executive protection agents and a 32-employee uniformed security division that was created in 2006. 

While military or government experience can be great for bodyguards, “Anybody can be an ex-Navy SEAL or bench press 300 pounds, Shaw said.  “I look for someone who’s a strong communicator.  The [important] factor is that ability to recognize something and to deal with it.”

Increasingly, technology also is a factor in helping him do his job.  He carries a Blackberry and backup Blackberry at all times.

In one instance, a stalker of a female Icon client who Shaw wouldn’t identify sent increasingly unfriendly e-mail messages to the performer’s management company. 

“The tone of the e-mails kept getting darker and darker, and I had about a day-and-a-half to track this guy down by only using his e-mail” before the client’s concert Shaw said. 

Eventually, security at the concert apprehended the man before he entered the event venue.  He had a criminal record that included spousal battery and attempting to burn a house down with the spouse inside, Shaw said.

Shaw entered the security business at age 19 while working as a security guard during his college years. 

Source:  Finance and Commerce

Vol. 120, No. 178.  September 7, 2007