But in his role as a Secret Service special agent protecting Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — a job where anything less than a 100% success rate was a catastrophic failure — these trips weren’t exactly vacations.
Agnelli served on the presidential protective detail from 1997 until 2002 — part of a 25-year career with the Secret Service. But for every Serengeti safari with Clinton or Daytona 500 with Bush, there were a hundred moments too dull for any scrapbook.
“People ask me what it’s like, and I say, ‘Put on your best suit. Go out and run around for an hour — get yourself real sweaty — and then stand in the rain, next to that door outside,” Agnelli says. “That’s what a lot of my days were like: freezing, standing outside in a place like Poland or Russia, thinking, ‘I’m going to die. It’s so cold.’ ”
When Agnelli was promoted to the protection detail, his definition of success changed dramatically. Instead of posing for photos in front of bogus bills, a good day meant his work went unnoticed.
“It is stressful,” he says. “I mean, God forbid anything happens; it’s all on you.”
After ending his Secret Service career in 2015, Agnelli moved into the private sector. As director of security at Citigroup in New York, stress remains — but it differs from his duty to protect presidents.
“Back then, I would come home to my wife and be like, ‘I don’t know how much longer I can do this,’ ” he says. “But when it was all said and done, I’m glad I did.”