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> Ms. Holmes maintains a heavy security detail. Men with earpieces escort her wherever she goes outside the Palo Alto headquarters. Their code name for her is “

> Ms. Holmes maintains a heavy security detail. Men with earpieces escort her wherever she goes outside the Palo Alto headquarters. Their code name for her is “Eagle 1,” current and former employees say. Mr. Balwani, until he retired, was “Eagle 2,” they say. You cannot make this shit up. How full of herself can she possibly get? The Adam McKay movie is going to be particularly fantastic if there are more examples like this.

brandon272 10y ago
How common is security detail for CEOs of billion dollar corporations to begin with? It seems to be fairly random. Steve Jobs drove himself to work. According to Fortune, in 2013 HP spent $1700 on security for Meg Whitman and Amazon spent $1.6M on Jeff Bezos [1]. It's really all over the map. And presumably the costs go up if the company is exposed in scandal and investors are unhappy with the CEO or they begin to receive threats. [1] http://fortune.com/2015/01/07/ceo-security-jeff-bezos/ http://fortune.com/2015/01/07/ceo-security-jeff-bezos/
- sargun 10y ago
  Zuckerberg maintains a pretty heavy security detail. So does Sandberg from my understanding.
  - personjerry 10y ago
    Source?
    - uptown 10y ago
      Pretty much any photo when Zuckerberg is out in public.
    - edoceo 10y ago
      I saw in some SEC filing, and subsequent news article that his detail was like $5m/yr
    - sargun 10y ago
      * http://sfist.com/2015/09/21/bond_villian_or_tech_dude.php http://sfist.com/2015/09/21/bond_villian_or_tech_dude.php * http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3564464/Facebook-spent-16-MILLION-Mark-Zuckerberg-s-security-just-5-years-specific-threats-1-2-million-year-COO-Sheryl-Sandberg.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3564464/Facebook-spe...
    - mbesto 10y ago
      Not the parent commenter, but I personally know the guy who runs the security outfit for him (and various other big names in SV).
- camkego 10y ago
  Somebody should do an article on this!
- mseebach 10y ago
  I would assume numbers like that are hard to compare. Perhaps corporate security spends a substantial effort on the CEO, but the cost ends up in the general security budget. Perhaps the CEO flies private jets primarily for security reasons (I believe this is the case for Warren Buffet), but the cost ends up on the travel budget (and vice versa). The $1700 figure is especially suspect, that will barely pay for locks on the doors, so there's some security expenses "hidden" in other budgets.
- duaneb 10y ago
  The only people who would threaten her are her own investors—and most of them should get their money back. Strikes me as narcissistic.
- jonknee 10y ago
  I'm not sure if driving is a good proxy for amount of security. Bezos supposedly car pools with his wife and kids in a minivan (source: The Everything Store book).
- gmarx 10y ago
  Marissa Mayer's house always has a couple guys in an SUV parked outside with the engine running. Someone told me there have been credible threats made against her. Maybe that is the key. The Steve Jobs way of doing it makes sense if you assume that a kidnapping would be someone the CEO loves rather than the CEO. But kidnapping has been out of style in the US for decades.
- SilasX 10y ago
  Holmes is widely believed to have been running a scam that potentially put lives at risk and duped very wealthy people. I'd say that a big security detail is the most defensible decision she's made so far...
- whamlastxmas 10y ago
  Here's a single data point. I used to work one layer removed from a billionaire (he was my boss's boss). I didn't interact with him much, but I had to do work directly for him regularly, and it sometimes required dropping by his house. He had at least one armed guard at his house driveway entrance 24/7. I suspect he had at least one other somewhere. But he drove himself to work in a pretty regular car and didn't have guards anywhere but his home that I can tell. We worked in a big building that had cops on the first floor during business hours, so I guess that was covered too. This guy is very private though, and you wouldn't know he was a billionaire unless you worked with him. There's barely any information on him if you Google him.
joezydeco 10y ago
I think being around CIA spooks long enough will do this to you. The stories about the insane level of security inside the offices is mind-boggling and can only come from people used to the spy trade. I half-wonder if there's some government angle to Theranos that hasn't been quite uncovered yet.
- hackaflocka 10y ago
  Her dad worked for a U.S. govt. foreign agency, and if you look at his bio and all the countries where he was posted, you might infer that he was in the CIA.
  - hackaflocka 10y ago
    Update: here's her dad: https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/christian-holmes https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/christian-holm... > Holmes worked in the field with USAID missions in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Yemen, Ghana, Haiti, Liberia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. > Holmes served in the U.S. Army, Second Lieutenant, Civil Affairs, receiving the U.S. Army Soldier’s Medal for Heroism.
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      Civil Affairs does a lot of humint, so quite likely.
  - joezydeco 10y ago
    Googling "USAID CIA cover" gives you lots of interesting results, for sure.
- Terr_ 10y ago
  It may also be marketing, in the same way that a high-end jewelry stores hired a guard to stand around.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
trhway 10y ago
>Ms. Holmes maintains a heavy security detail. thinking as a Russian, i can see how that can be a channeling of [investors'] money to the CIA friends [of the father, of the board members, etc...]. You know a typical cost+ [a lot of '+'s] contract or something like it...
gmarx 10y ago
I spoke to a guy who interviewed there a long time ago and he said the crazy level security was in place back then. He called the security guys secret service because he thought it had something to do with her father being a senior state department guy (or something). I don't think that gets you actual secret service. Interesting data point that this was from the beginning

brandon272 10y ago

How common is security detail for CEOs of billion dollar corporations to begin with? It seems to be fairly random. Steve Jobs drove himself to work. According to Fortune, in 2013 HP spent $1700 on security for Meg Whitman and Amazon spent $1.6M on Jeff Bezos [1]. It's really all over the map. And presumably the costs go up if the company is exposed in scandal and investors are unhappy with the CEO or they begin to receive threats. [1] http://fortune.com/2015/01/07/ceo-security-jeff-bezos/ http://fortune.com/2015/01/07/ceo-security-jeff-bezos/

sargun 10y ago
Zuckerberg maintains a pretty heavy security detail. So does Sandberg from my understanding.
- personjerry 10y ago
  Source?
  - uptown 10y ago
    Pretty much any photo when Zuckerberg is out in public.
  - edoceo 10y ago
    I saw in some SEC filing, and subsequent news article that his detail was like $5m/yr
  - sargun 10y ago
    * http://sfist.com/2015/09/21/bond_villian_or_tech_dude.php http://sfist.com/2015/09/21/bond_villian_or_tech_dude.php * http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3564464/Facebook-spent-16-MILLION-Mark-Zuckerberg-s-security-just-5-years-specific-threats-1-2-million-year-COO-Sheryl-Sandberg.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3564464/Facebook-spe...
  - mbesto 10y ago
    Not the parent commenter, but I personally know the guy who runs the security outfit for him (and various other big names in SV).
camkego 10y ago
Somebody should do an article on this!
mseebach 10y ago
I would assume numbers like that are hard to compare. Perhaps corporate security spends a substantial effort on the CEO, but the cost ends up in the general security budget. Perhaps the CEO flies private jets primarily for security reasons (I believe this is the case for Warren Buffet), but the cost ends up on the travel budget (and vice versa). The $1700 figure is especially suspect, that will barely pay for locks on the doors, so there's some security expenses "hidden" in other budgets.
duaneb 10y ago
The only people who would threaten her are her own investors—and most of them should get their money back. Strikes me as narcissistic.
jonknee 10y ago
I'm not sure if driving is a good proxy for amount of security. Bezos supposedly car pools with his wife and kids in a minivan (source: The Everything Store book).
gmarx 10y ago
Marissa Mayer's house always has a couple guys in an SUV parked outside with the engine running. Someone told me there have been credible threats made against her. Maybe that is the key. The Steve Jobs way of doing it makes sense if you assume that a kidnapping would be someone the CEO loves rather than the CEO. But kidnapping has been out of style in the US for decades.
SilasX 10y ago
Holmes is widely believed to have been running a scam that potentially put lives at risk and duped very wealthy people. I'd say that a big security detail is the most defensible decision she's made so far...
whamlastxmas 10y ago
Here's a single data point. I used to work one layer removed from a billionaire (he was my boss's boss). I didn't interact with him much, but I had to do work directly for him regularly, and it sometimes required dropping by his house. He had at least one armed guard at his house driveway entrance 24/7. I suspect he had at least one other somewhere. But he drove himself to work in a pretty regular car and didn't have guards anywhere but his home that I can tell. We worked in a big building that had cops on the first floor during business hours, so I guess that was covered too. This guy is very private though, and you wouldn't know he was a billionaire unless you worked with him. There's barely any information on him if you Google him.

joezydeco 10y ago

I think being around CIA spooks long enough will do this to you. The stories about the insane level of security inside the offices is mind-boggling and can only come from people used to the spy trade. I half-wonder if there's some government angle to Theranos that hasn't been quite uncovered yet.

hackaflocka 10y ago
Her dad worked for a U.S. govt. foreign agency, and if you look at his bio and all the countries where he was posted, you might infer that he was in the CIA.
- hackaflocka 10y ago
  Update: here's her dad: https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/christian-holmes https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/christian-holm... > Holmes worked in the field with USAID missions in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Yemen, Ghana, Haiti, Liberia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. > Holmes served in the U.S. Army, Second Lieutenant, Civil Affairs, receiving the U.S. Army Soldier’s Medal for Heroism.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    Civil Affairs does a lot of humint, so quite likely.
- joezydeco 10y ago
  Googling "USAID CIA cover" gives you lots of interesting results, for sure.
Terr_ 10y ago
It may also be marketing, in the same way that a high-end jewelry stores hired a guard to stand around.
- dogma1138 10y ago

trhway 10y ago

>Ms. Holmes maintains a heavy security detail. thinking as a Russian, i can see how that can be a channeling of [investors'] money to the CIA friends [of the father, of the board members, etc...]. You know a typical cost+ [a lot of '+'s] contract or something like it...

gmarx 10y ago

I spoke to a guy who interviewed there a long time ago and he said the crazy level security was in place back then. He called the security guys secret service because he thought it had something to do with her father being a senior state department guy (or something). I don't think that gets you actual secret service. Interesting data point that this was from the beginning