'This was preventable’: Corporate world shudders at new risks after slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO

cnbc.com:

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot Wednesday doing something countless other American executives routinely do: Walking unaccompanied to an investor event held by his company.

But Thompson's death this week in the heart of corporate America's capital has sent shockwaves throughout the business world, forcing companies to rethink the risks in even the most routine executive responsibilities.

«Everyone's scrambling to say, 'Are we safe?'» said Chuck Randolph, chief security officer for Ontic, an Austin, Texas-based provider of threat management software. «This is an inflection point where the idea of executive protection is now raised to the board level. Everyone I know in the industry is feeling this.»

Threats against corporations have been rising for years, fueled in part by the echo chamber of social media and a more polarized political environment, according to security professionals. But the slaying on a Manhattan sidewalk of Thompson, head of the largest private health insurer in the U.S., is the highest profile such incident in decades.

Companies now worry their leaders face greater risk of being targets of violence, especially as they hold more public investor events in New York in the coming weeks.

The gunman is still at large, and his motivation isn't known. Words written on the shell casings found at the scene may offer hints about what incited the shooter.

One question from security experts not involved in the case was whether the shooter demonstrated grievances against UnitedHealthcare in online forums and searched for information about the investor event. Several health-care companies have reacted by pulling photos of executives from websites, and health insurer Centene made an investor