Corporate Executive Security Teams Reviewing Whether to ‘Dial Up’ Safety Measures in Wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killing

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor 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.