Following the shocking murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel this week, security teams responsible for ensuring the safety of senior corporate execs are taking stock of their strategic plans.
On Wednesday (Dec. 4), Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare — one of largest health insurance companies in the U.S. — was fatally shot from behind by an unidentified attacker as Thompson was heading to the New York Hilton Midtown hotel for the parent company’s annual investor meeting.
Right now it’s “too early to say” what changes corporate executive security teams might be making after Wednesday’s incident, according to John Orloff, global service line leader for security risk management and security design at Jensen Hughes, an engineering, consulting and services firm.
“I believe the focus right now for corporate security teams is on using their protective intelligence tools and capabilities to better modulate (dial up or down) their level of support to executives for upcoming events and travel scenarios based on threat levels,” said Orloff, who previously spent 21 years at the U.S. Secret Service.
According to Orloff, intelligence collection and analysis are the two “foundational pillars” of a “forward-facing executive protection team.” “Once a picture is painted of who is out there making threats or expressing unusual interest in an executive, that information should be included as one of the factors driving the level of security being afforded the executive,” he said.
Following Thompson’s killing, dozens of the heads of security for large U.S. companies convened on a conference call Wednesday to “discuss security protocols,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “It’s very clear that many boards and CEOs across the U.S. today are asking their chief security officers for reviews of the current state of their executive protection programs,” Dave Komendat, a consultant and former Boeing security chief who participated in the call, told the paper.
Big companies pay millions for security services to protect top execs. For example, in 2023, Meta paid $9.4 million for costs related to personal security for chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg “at his residences and during personal travel” and additionally granted him a pre-tax allowance of $14 million for “costs related to Mr. Zuckerberg and his family’s personal security,” per an SEC filing.
Among media companies, Disney paid $1.2 million in fiscal year 2023 on security services and equipment for CEO Bob Iger; Netflix last year spent $1.3 million on residential security for co-CEO Ted Sarandos; and Fox Corp. paid $1.625 million on residential security for chief Lachlan Murdoch for the year ended June 30.
In its 2024 proxy statement, Disney said, “Given the unique security risks posed by the position, the Company pays the cost of security services and equipment for the CEO in an amount that the Board believes is reasonable in light of the security needs and, in the interest of security, requires the CEO to use corporate aircraft for all personal travel.”
The motive of the person who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO remains unknown as the hunt continued Friday for the suspect. Police officials said they found the words “deny,” “delay” and “depose” inscribed on bullet casings from the assassin’s gun at the crime scene, evocative of a phrase used by critics of the healthcare insurance industry.
In any event, the murder of a high-profile CEO on a city street undoubtedly has prompted a review of executive-protection strategies. It’s likely that corporate security personnel also undertook assessments of their procedures after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in July.
“Determining the need for and appropriate level of an executive-level protection program is specific to each organization,” David Johnston, VP of asset protection and retail operations for the National Retail Federation trade group, told the AP. “These safeguards should also include the constant monitoring of potential threats and the ability to adapt to maintain the appropriate level of security and safety.”
Executive protection goes “far beyond assigning a protection specialist to accompany an executive,” Orloff said. “It’s about addressing the full spectrum of protective services priorities,” including conducting advance site surveys, assessing an executive’s residential security and collecting, analyzing and managing protective intelligence.
(Pictured above: Police place bullet casing markers outside of the Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on Dec. 4.)
Source link
