Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO spotlights complex challenge companies face in protecting top brass [Video]

NEW YORK – He’s one of the most famous corporate leaders in the world, delivering products embraced by billions. 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 …