Disgruntled influencer Nasim Aghdam stormed into the courtyard of YouTube headquarters in San Bruno in 2018 and shot three people before killing herself. A Virginia woman obsessive about Apple CEO Tim Cook drove across the country and showed up at Cook's Palo Alto apartment in 2021 after sending him photos of a loaded handgun. Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe, was kidnapped by two gunmen as he arrived for work in Mountain View in 1992.
Following the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, these threats and acts of violence against the tech industry and its executives in Silicon Valley highlight the hazards which have forced tech firms to spend enormous sums of cash to forestall their CEOs and other high-ranking employees from being targeted .
“Whoever is portrayed in the media is probably the most at risk,” said Tom LaFreniere, a former Bay Area FBI agent who captured considered one of Geschke's kidnappers within the Monterey dunes and now heads security consultancy DynaSec International in Rohnert Park.
At major technology firms in Silicon Valley, CEOs typically present the general public face of the corporate through the media. Photos flow into all over the world as Cook takes the stage at Apple's annual conference, as Sundar Pichai speaks about products and strategy at Google's annual conference, and as CEO Mark Zuckerberg touts innovation at meta-events.
“Mr. Zuckerberg is one of the most respected executives in the world,” Meta said in a shareholder statement this yr, noting that the assessments cited “identified specific threats to Mr. Zuckerberg” resulting from his high profile.
Police said UnitedHealthcare's Thompson received threats and appeared to have been targeted, possibly by someone upset about insurance decisions – a frustration shared by many. But technology firms can be similarly controversial. Aghdam appeared upset concerning the publishing and monetization practices on Google's YouTube. Zuckerberg has been criticized and Meta sued over the impact of social media on young people.
Trying to maintain executives like Zuckerberg protected in a rustic filled with weapons and in an industry that may fire up volatile emotions isn't low-cost.
Last yr, in line with a regulatory filingMeta spent $9.4 million on Zuckerberg's security at home and through his personal trips, plus $969,000 on costs related to his private plane “related to his overall security program.” The meta-CEO received a $14 million allowance to “cover additional costs related to the personal security of himself and his family,” increasing the corporate's total cost of the safety of its CEO and his family 24.3 million US dollars.
Security for Pichai cost Google's parent company Alphabet $6.8 million last yr. the corporate said in a regulatory filing.
Santa Clara computer chip maker NVIDIA spent $2.2 million on home security and consulting fees last yr to guard CEO Jensen Huang. The company reported this to regulators.
Cook, despite his experience with the stalker, appears to have paid Apple less in security costs than other major Silicon Valley firms: $820,309 last yr The Cupertino company reported.
The technology industry itself has increased the danger for Silicon Valley executives, security experts said.
“It's so easy to find out where someone lives now,” said an executive protection expert who works for a significant Bay Area tech company but can't speak publicly due to a nondisclosure agreement. “You can go on these apps and track people’s planes. It’s so easy to access people.”
Executive protection teams assess potential threats, and protecting CEOs means considering why someone would wish to use violence against them. Money might be a motive for a kidnapping, LaFreniere noted. Resentment can motivate attackers within the context of an organization leader's personal life, decisions he makes in his job or decisions made by subordinates that keep the CEO because the face of the corporate, LaFreniere said. Dissatisfied employees can pose a risk.
Danny Gonzalez, CEO of San Francisco security firm Execushield, said that at a time when many Americans are emotionally volatile and folks's location is commonly easy to find out, the potential attackers that worry him most are “those who just show up in New York and do their thing and go away.”
Many factors determine the size and cost of an executive protection service, including a company's budget, the number of executive family members, the frequency of travel and the number of places they spend time, LaFreniere said.
The levels of protection also vary. When a CEO is on the road, maximum protection may consist of an armored car with an armed driver and an armed bodyguard in the passenger seat, both trained in the use of emergency medical equipment on board, as well as a lead car and a follow car with a driver and a “shooter,” Gonzalez said.
Members of a security unit typically scout locations before the person they’re protecting arrives, Gonzalez said.
Home defenses may consist of “concentric rings of protection,” perhaps dogs, artificial intelligence-connected cameras, threat detection software, patrolling guards, and even “security bushes” chosen for his or her prickliness to forestall people from hiding inside said Gonzalez. Windows might be supplied with bullet-resistant movies. Doors needs to be reinforced, and houses could have protected rooms designed to be impenetrable. In the event of an attack, the important goal is to purchase time for police to reach, Gonzalez said.
In offices, most firms depend on the safety staff and systems they’ve in place, Gonzalez said.
Heavy security measures are intrusive and require CEOs to continually adjust their security measures, experts say. Sometimes business leaders don't want security, but their company's board gives them no selection, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said he expected other business leaders to be concerned about their very own safety following Thompson's killing. Since then, UnitedHealthcare and other insurers akin to Blue Cross Blue Shield and Elevance Health (formerly Anthem) have removed some details about their executives from their web sites, health industry news site STAT reported.
But Gonzalez didn't anticipate an enormous spike in demand for executive protection in Silicon Valley.
“Everyone will return to day-to-day business,” he said.
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