Slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO spotlights complex challenge companies face in protecting top brass
In an era when online anger and social tensions are increasingly directed at the businesses consumers count on, Meta last year spent $24.4 million to surround CEO Mark Zuckerberg with security
NEW YORK — He’s one of the most famous and widely admired corporate leaders in the world. But it’s the haters that companies like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta worry about.
In an era when online anger and social tensions are increasingly directed at the businesses consumers count on, Meta last year spent $24.4 million on guards, alarms and other measures to keep Zuckerberg and the company’s former chief operating officer safe.
Some high-profile CEOs surround themselves with security. But the fatal shooting this week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson while he walked alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take in protecting their leaders against threats.
Thompson had no personal security and appeared unaware of the shooter lurking before he was gunned down.
And today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say.
“We are better today at collecting signals. I’m not sure we’re any better at making sense of the signals we collect,” says Fred Burton of Ontic, a provider of threat management software for companies.
After Thompson's shooting, Burton said, “I’ve been on the phone all day with some organizations asking for consultation, saying, ’Am I doing enough?”
Some of the biggest U.S. companies, particularly those in the tech sector, spend heavily on personal and residential security for their top executives.
Meta, whose businesses include
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