Large companies likely to beef up security for executives after UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder

The public murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in Midtown Manhattan is likely to prompt a major reassessment of security for corporate executives.

Firms specializing in executive protection say they have fielded a flurry of calls from companies looking to beef up security after Brian Thompson was gunned down Wednesday morning while entering a hotel to co-host UnitedHealth’s annual investor meeting.

“It’s a wakeup call for a lot of companies,” said Glen Kucera, the New York-based president of Enhanced Protection Services, an arm of security company Allied Universal. “Unfortunately, it sometimes takes an event like this to impact change in the threat landscape.”

Thompson, 50, ran the largest U.S. health insurer, a division of the nation’s fourth biggest publicly traded company, Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group. His death was shocking. Police, who called the shooting premeditated, are still looking for the killer. Several news organizations have reported that bullet casings left at the crime scene were marked with the word “deny” and other terms associated with insurers rejecting claims.

UnitedHealth has faced scrutiny from the press and elected officials about denying requests for medical care.

And threats against health insurers — indeed all insurers — have been rising in recent years, said Dale Buckner, CEO of Global Guardian, a Washington, D.C.-based corporate security provider. Insurance is by nature a business that can “create enemies at scale,” he said.

A denied claim or medical treatment can seriously damage a consumer’s financial health — or worse.

“These decisions [made by insurers] can impact the quality of life or even life and death,” said Enhanced Protection’s Kucera.

And thanks to the internet, corporate executives are easier to trace these days for people with a beef. Add to that public discourse is more coarse and polarized in recent years, and more public figures have added security details.

Security for corporate executives can vary greatly by company, ranging from company-paid home security systems to drivers and bodyguards.

“At companies within the Fortune 500, and especially within the Fortune 100, there is likely some kind of executive protection program,” said Dave Komendat, a retired chief security officer for Boeing Co. who runs his own security firm in Seattle.

UnitedHealth did not respond to a request for comment on whether it provides personal protection for its top executives.

Andrew Witty, UnitedHealth Group’s CEO, though, is required to use the company’s aircraft for all business travel, and he’s encouraged to do the same for his personal travel, according to a UnitedHealth filing with federal securities regulators.

Such policies are common at publicly traded companies, including several in Minnesota. Those firms would rather have their top executives travel on corporate aircraft or private charters than have them wait in lines at commercial airports where security would be harder to control.

Top executives of publicly traded companies, particularly CEOS, sometimes get company-paid home security systems as well.

Minneapolis-based Target pays for such a system for its chief executive, Brian Cornell, though it doesn’t disclose the cost in public filings. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp paid $7,215 in home security expenses last year for its CEO Andrew Cecere.

And Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial shelled out $61,450 for home security last year for its CEO Jim Cracchiolo, who works primarily out of New York City. The company also covered $23,368 for Cracchiolo’s use of a car and driver.

Top tech company executives, particularly those in the public spotlight, have racked up significant security expenses.

In 2018, Meta started paying CEO Mark Zuckerberg $10 million a year for his personal and family security, raising that to $14 million in February 2023, federal securities filings show. Meta also paid for personal security services for its other principal officers.

At Alphabet/Google, CEO Sundar Pichai received $6.8 million worth of personal security services in 2023, including air travel and company car use.

From 2021 to 2023, the prevalence of S&P 500 companies that offered security perks for at least one of their top five executive officers grew modestly from 23.5% to 27.6%, according to Equilar, a California-based executive data firm.

However, the median total value of security perks for companies that did pay them doubled from $47,643 to $98,069 during that time.

Equilar’s data comes from company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But those filings don’t necessarily capture all expenses for executive protection. Some of those costs can be lumped into a company’s general business expenses, corporate security experts say.

Personal protection can range from guards for top executives at public events to round-the-clock service for select CEOS. Generally, “the CEO will receive a much higher level of care,” said Global Guardian’s Buckner.

By Thursday, two days after Thompson’s slaying, Global Guardian had gotten 70 requests from companies for personal protection services. Normally, it gets at 150 to 175 such requests per month.

“In two days, we got about a half a month’s worth of demand,” Buckner said.

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