Gavin de Becker

Gavin de Becker is the son of Hal de Becker (1931–2021), an American dancer and prolific writer about dance.

De Becker describes his childhood as mired in violence.

His parents divorced when he was three.

His mother was a heroin addict who physically abused him and his sister, and once shot his stepfather while de Becker was present in the home.

She committed suicide when he was sixteen, and de Becker subsequently moved in with a friend from school, Miguel Ferrer, the son of actors José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney.

He lived with the family for two years and would go on to work with Clooney as her road manager.

He then worked as Elizabeth Taylor's assistant.

At the age of 21, de Becker wrote an article about public figure protection in the private sector for a law enforcement journal.

This was picked up by the Department of Justice's National Criminal Justice Center and made available to every police department in the United States.

Gavin de Becker (born October 26, 1954) is an American author and security specialist who has worked for governments, large corporations, and public figures.

Reportedly a billionaire, he runs Gavin de Becker and Associates, which he founded in 1978.

The firm protects and advises many of the world's most prominent public figures.

De Becker is often cited as an expert on the prediction and management of violence.

He has had three U.S. presidential appointments and is recognized as a pioneer in threat assessment and protective intelligence.

He is the author of several books on violence, most notably The Gift of Fear, and his books have been published in twenty-five languages.

In the 1980s, together with the United States Marshals Service, de Becker co-designed the MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems, which is used to screen threats to justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, members of United States Congress, and senior officials of the Central Intelligence Agency.

He was twice appointed to the President's Advisory Board at the United States Department of Justice, in 1982 and 1989, and he served two terms on the Governor's Advisory Board at the California Department of Mental Health.

He has also served as an advisor for the anti-bullying resource Bystander Revolution, senior advisor to the Rand Corporation, and senior fellow at UCLA's School of Public Policy.

De Becker has shared his philosophies about prevention of violence in several appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 60 Minutes, Larry King Live, 20/20, The Jordan Harbinger Show, and Sam Harris's podcast, Waking Up.

He has written essays and op-ed pieces for the Huffington Post, and he has been profiled in Time and Newsweek magazines, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other publications.

In 1983, he investigated a stalker for Olivia Newton-John, Sheena Easton, and Cher.

He also provided his services to celebrities like Richard Burton, Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Joan Rivers, Victoria Principal, Tina Turner, and John Travolta.

Los Angeles County Law enforcement agencies adopted MOSAIC in 1997 to help police manage and reduce spousal abuse cases that might escalate to homicide.

His first book, The Gift of Fear, published in 1997, was a US number 1 bestseller on The New York Times Bestseller List.

Also in 1997, his firm was hired by Bill Cosby to investigate the murder of his son, Ennis, and the threatening letters his family received after the slaying.

In 1999–2000, he assisted the United States Secret Service in the development of its guide for Protective Intelligence and

Threat Assessment Investigations.

In 2008, Oprah Winfrey dedicated a show to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the publication of The Gift of Fear.

In the last year of her show, she dedicated two hour-long shows to de Becker's work in domestic violence.

His 2008 book, Just 2 Seconds, has been described as a guide for protectors of at-risk people focusing on five key lessons for those responsible to protect others.

It also includes summaries of incidents from the last several decades for training and analysis.

Co-authors of the book are Tom Taylor and Jeff Marquart.

A United Nations report noted that "the iPhone infiltration occurred from May to June in 2018, when the phones of Jamal Khashoggi's associates, Yahya Assiri and Omar Abdulaziz, were also hacked, allegedly using malware called Pegasus."

The UN experts stated: "During the same period, Mr. Bezos was widely targeted in Saudi social media as an alleged adversary of the Kingdom. This was part of a massive, clandestine online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon, apparently targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post."

In March 2019, de Becker, who has worked for Jeff Bezos, accused the Saudi Arabian government of hacking Bezos' phone after the National Enquirer published a story about Bezos's extramarital affair.

According to the BBC, de Becker, as Bezos' top security staffer, "linked the hack to The Washington Post coverage of the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul."

The Daily Beast ran an op-ed, in which de Becker explained the matter of the Saudi hack in detail.

Journalist Brad Stone explored whether the Saudi hack was linked in any way to a National Enquirer article about Bezos having an affair.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard conducted an investigation of the Saudi hack.

In a public statement, she referred to information that suggested a WhatsApp account belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was used to deploy digital spyware on Bezos' phone, "in an effort to influence, if not silence" The Washington Post's reporting on the kingdom.