Executive Security in the Spotlight After UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder in NYC
Spending on executive personal safety has doubled in recent years, although some companies ‘don’t want the hassle’ of physical security.
Adobe Stock image by N7.
NEW YORK — UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson “had no personal security detail” when he was fatally shot Wednesday morning, which “could prompt swift changes inside corporate boardrooms, especially as the global political environment grows more unstable,” according to a Bloomberg report.
Thompson, 50, was shot in the back and the leg in what authorities called a targeted attack outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where his company was hosting an investor day. He arrived at the hotel alone, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said in the report.
Bloomberg’s report shows that no UnitedHealth executive receives benefits specifically related to personal security or protection, according to the firm’s 2024 and 2023 proxy statements. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have allocated millions of dollars a year to protect their CEOs, the report says.
The Double-Edged Sword of Personal Security for CEOs
Public companies must identify spending on security services and other services if it exceeds $10,000 in a given year, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Bloomberg. Humana Inc. and Cigna Group are among the insurers that list personal security among the benefits provided to executives, but their regulatory filings don’t specify how much they spend, the report says.
Median spending by S&P 500 companies that disclosed security perquisite spending doubled from 2021 to 2023 to nearly $100,000, according to an analysis by Equilar, an executive-compensation data provider, cited by Bloomberg. Over the same period, the share of companies that said they provided security for at least one of their top executives rose from 23.5% to 27.6%, Equilar found, the report says.
Some companies “don’t invest in executive protection services because they feel it might actually draw unwanted attention to them,” Glen Kucera, president of the enhanced protection services unit of Allied Universal, told Bloomberg.
Allied Universal provides armed escorts, canine teams and other security services for New York’s World Trade Center, the U.S. State Department and professional baseball teams, the report says.
“Some don’t want the hassle, some don’t want the exposure, some don’t feel it’s necessary,” Kucera told Bloomberg in an interview. “Some don’t feel that they’re a controversial figure. [Thompson] probably felt he was safe as well. Unfortunately he wasn’t.”
The only UnitedHealth policy related to executives’ personal security requires chief executive officer Andrew Witty to use the company plane for all business travel, the Bloomberg report says. The company also encourages him to use it for all personal trips instead of flying commercial, though he didn’t use it for such flights in 2023, the company said in its proxy statement.
Those guidelines didn’t apply to Thompson, who was CEO of the company’s UnitedHealthcare insurance unit, according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, the suspect in Thompson’s fatal shooting was caught on a video surveillance camera at an area hostel smiling as he flirted with a staff member, according to a People report.
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About the Author
D. Craig MacCormack, Digital Editor
Craig MacCormack is a veteran journalist who joined Security Sales & Integration in June 2023 as digital editor. He covered AV, IT and security with SSI's sister publication, Commercial Integrator, from January 2011 to June 2021.
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