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I’ll never forget where I was when I learned about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Eating breakfast after a Wednesday morning workout, I was checking headlines on X. I couldn’t believe my eyes and immediately turned on the television. After flipping from network to network, the former TV reporter in me wanted to learn all facts available at what was then approximately three hours post-shooting. My next gut reaction was to text a screenshot of the headline to one of the C-suite executives I coach and who has become a friend. Knowing he is regularly in New York City with his CEO, I couldn’t help but think about the what-ifs of the unthinkable ever happening to one of them.
The sad part of the ongoing investigation is how this could be reality on any given day in any given city in the United States of America. You’ve seen headlines about gun control. You’ve likely read messages on various social media platforms condemning the health insurance industry and executives like Thompson. Unfortunately, humanity flushes out of people’s systems when they face their own grievances about life events. No matter your economic status, health care in the U.S. is a confusing road. But that’s for another column.
For now, I would like to share reactions and insights from two current CEOs and two former C-suite executives across health care, banking, e-commerce and higher education with whom I’ve spoken in recent days. I will also share crisis prevention best practices through my lens as a crisis strategist. As we say on my podcast, “The Crisis Files,” it’s not a matter of if but when crisis will rock your world.
“This is a wake-up call for how public the role of CEO is,” Diane Pearse, a Chicago-based corporate board member and former CEO, told me. “It is easy to forget that not everyone is your friend and that senior leaders are more visible and vulnerable.”
As she prepares for one of her own corporate board meetings this week, she knows the topic of security will come up. Her board “talks about enterprise risk management all the time.” After this tragedy, she told me she’s going to also put a greater emphasis on emergency succession planning.
Another executive I spoke with — a former president at a Fortune 15 health care company and current corporate board member — told me he has stayed at the same hotel in New York City where Thompson was heading when he was shot while attending similar health care conferences and investor meetings. His company, which is in distribution, used minimal security for U.S.-based travel, but he did regularly have security when visiting international locations, “especially in areas where violence and kidnapping were not uncommon events,” he said. His company also increased security during the height of the opioid epidemic when he said “drug manufacturers and distributors were viewed by some people as primarily responsible for deaths and addiction of millions.” Still, he doubts whether this tragedy will change overall behavior and security practices significantly over the long-term.