American companies are investing record amounts to protect their executives in response to threats and the murder of two senior corporate officials in separate attacks in Manhattan, New York during the last eight months.
The companies doubled the number of security equipment dressed in civilians on the outskirts of the New York City buildings since the shooting last week in which four people died, said Glen Kucera, president of the Universal Reinforced Protection Services Unit, a security and facilities services company.
“It is indescribable. I never met anyone who was killed,” said Rich Friedman, president of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who previously worked with one of the victims, the Blackstone executive, Wesley Lepatner.
Lepatner’s death shocked Wall Street, although authorities believe it was a fortuitous event. Police said the attacker was aimed at the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL), located in the same building in the Midtown area of Manhattan where Lepatner worked. The shooter also killed a policeman from New York City, a security guard of the building and an employee of the real estate Rudin before committing suicide.
The attack was “shocking and very close,” said Ed Skyler, spokesman for Citigroup, in a note to employees one day after the murders of July 28 in Midtown. “It is understandable that yesterday’s incident has also left us with a sense of restlessness,” he added, assuring employees that the bank reinforced security at its Manhattan headquarters during the last year.
The threats against executives “have shot since 2020,” said Chris Pierson, executive director of the BlackCloak cybersecurity firm. He highlighted how the man accused of killing a legislator from Minnesota and her husband near Minneapolis in June supposedly maintained a list of objectives, mainly composed of other politicians, and used online people search services to find their addresses.
Ben Joelson, director of safety and resilience risks of Chertoff Group, a security advice firm, said that the threats against executives are greater than at any other time of the decade that has been working in the sector, and that the publications in social networks amplified the complaints against institutional leaders. Artificial intelligence is aggravating the problem, causing an “exponential increase” of Phishing’s attempts, says Joelson, cited in a report by the equilile research firm.
Soser context: Wall Street returns to work after the shooting in Manhattan who killed a Blackstone executive
When the CEO of Unitedhealthcare, Brian Thompson, was shot dead in New York in December, it seemed to be an exceptional case, Joelson declared Reuters in an interview. However, the selective attacks have continued, including the murders in Minnesota and the death of two employees of the Israel Embassy in Washington in May. “It is increasingly acceptable than some malicious or adversary actors respond to complaints through violence,” which has led many companies to prioritize security, said Joelson.
Matthew Dumpert, global leader for Business Security Risk Management at the Kroll Financial and Risk firm, said that many customers, both new and existing, contacted me last week after the deadly attack on Midtown.
“Several of the direct communications with me have been of the executive committees … who assume the risk: legal directors, administrators, responsible for regulatory compliance and security responsible,” Dumpert said. He added that several clients who had programmed emergency response projects to begin at the end of this year have asked him to “prioritize them immediately and move forward.”
The tendency to invest in more security does not surprise
The average expenses on executive security for senior management, including executive directors, financial directors and others, increased 16% last year, reaching a record of 106,530 dollars, indicate new data of equilation, which reviewed the financial reports of the 500 largest quoted companies in EU for income.
Security spending includes surveillance and alarm systems for the homes of executives, personal guards and cyber protection. Equiller analysts stated that the trend is likely to continue as companies face the growing threats to their executives and employees.
The percentage of executives in these companies that have such protection increased from 23.3% to 33.8% during the 2020-2024 period, according to equilile. Almost a third of the group executive directors (32.4%) received security services last year, compared to 21.9% in 2020. The value of the security benefits of these executive directors reached a median of $ 77,976 last year, compared to 40,052 dollars of 2020.
Technology companies registered the highest growth in the implementation of security measures for executives, with an increase of 73.5% in those who received the benefits between 2020 and 2024, but the communications companies were the ones that most spent, with a median of 1.2 million dollars a year, says Equila.
First -line companies such as Walmart, General Motors, American Express and the Broadcom chips manufacturer had already revealed new or augmented security expenses with respect to previous years after Thompson’s murder.
“This trend is not surprising considering the general concern for the safety of executives in the midst of geopolitical instability, the increase in cyberamezas and the high public visibility of the high leadership positions,” said equilale in his report.
With Reuters information
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