In 2018, disgruntled influencer Nasim Aghdam stormed onto a courtyard at YouTube’s San Bruno offices, where she shot three people before taking her own life. After sending Apple CEO Tim Cook pictures of a loaded pistol, a Virginia lady who was fascinated with Cook drove across the nation and appeared outside Cook’s Palo Alto condo in 2021.When Charles Geschke, a co-founder of Adobe, arrived at his job in Mountain View in 1992, he was abducted by two armed men.
Following the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, threats and violent acts directed at Silicon Valley’s tech sector and its executives underscore the risks that have compelled tech firms to shell out enormous sums of money to protect their CEOs and other prominent staff members.
Tom LaFreniere, a former Bay Area FBI agent who apprehended one of Geschke’s kidnappers in the Monterey dunes and who leads security firm DynaSec International, based in Rohnert Park, stated that whoever is portrayed in the media would likely be the most vulnerable.
The CEOs of the large Silicon Valley tech companies usually serve as the company’s public face in the media. Images of Cook speaking at Apple’s annual conference, Sundar Pichai discussing strategy and products at Google’s annual gathering, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg showcasing ideas at Meta events are shared globally.
In a shareholder statement this year, Meta stated that assessments had identified particular threats to Mr. Zuckerberg due to his high profile, despite the fact that he is one of the most well-known executives in the world.
According to police, Thompson of UnitedHealthcare had been threatened and seemed to have been singled out, perhaps by someone who was upset about coverage choices—a dissatisfaction that many people experience. However, IT firms may be just as contentious. Aghdam seems to be upset over Google’s YouTube uploading and monetization policies. Due to the impact of social media on youth, Zuckerberg has come under fire and Meta has been sued.
It’s not cheap to try to keep leaders like Zuckerberg safe in a nation full of guns and in a field that can elicit strong emotions.
A regulatory filing from last year states that Meta spent $9.4 million on security for Zuckerberg at his residences and on his personal trips, in addition to $969,000 for his own plane as part of his overall security program. The company’s overall cost of protecting its CEO and his family came to $24.3 million after the CEO of Meta was given a $14 million allowance to pay extra expenses for their personal protection.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, stated in a regulatory filing that Pichai’s security cost the business $6.8 million last year.
NVIDIA, a Santa Clara computer chip manufacturer, told regulators that it spent $2.2 million on home security and consulting expenses last year to protect CEO Jensen Huang.
Cook, despite his experience with the stalker, appears to cost Apple less than other major Silicon Valley companies for security: $820,309 last year, theCupertino company reported.
According to security experts, Silicon Valley leaders are now at greater risk due to the technology sector itself.
It s so easy to access where somebody lives now, said an executive-protection professional who works for a major Bay Area tech company but cannot speak publicly because of a non-disclosure agreement. These apps allow you to track people’s flights. It s so easy to access people.
Executive-protection teams assess potential threats, and for safeguarding CEOs, that means considering why someone would want to commit violence against them. LaFreniere pointed out that kidnapping can have financial motivations. Grudges can motivate attackers, related to a corporate leader s personal life, decisions they make in their job or decisions subordinates make that get hung on the CEO as the face of the company, LaFreniere said. Unhappy workers may be dangerous.
In a time when many Americans are emotionally unstable and people’s whereabouts are frequently easy to determine, Danny Gonzalez, CEO of the San Francisco security firm Execushield, stated that the potential attackers that most worry him are those who will simply show up, like the one in New York, do their thing, and then leave.
Many factors govern the size and cost of an executive-protection service, including a company s budget, how many people are in the executive s family, frequency of travel and number of locations where they spend time, LaFreniere said.
Levels of protection also vary. When a CEO is traveling by road, maximum protection can include an armored car with an armed driver and an armed bodyguard in the passenger seat, both trained to use onboard emergency medical equipment, plus a lead car and a follow car with a driver and a shooter, Gonzalez said.
Members of a security detail typically scout out locations before the person they protect arrives, Gonzalez said.
Defenses at home can involve concentric rings of protection, possibly including dogs, cameras connected to artificial-intelligence, threat-detection software, patrolling guards and even security shrubs chosen for their spikiness to prevent people from hiding in them, Gonzalez said. Windows may have bullet-resistant films. Doors should be fortified, and homes may have safe rooms designed to be impenetrable. In case of an attack, the main objective is to buy time for police to arrive, Gonzalez said.
In offices, most companies rely on the security staff and systems they have on the premises, Gonzalez said.
Heavy security is intrusive and requires CEOs to constantly adjust arrangements with their security details, experts said. Sometimes company leaders don t want security, but their firm s board of directors gives them no choice, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said he expected other corporate leaders to start worrying about their own safety after Thompson s killing. Since then, UnitedHealthcare and other insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem) have removed some information about their executives from their websites, health industry news site STAT reported.
But Gonzalez did not anticipate a big boost in demand for executive protection in Silicon Valley.
Everybody s going to go back to business as usual, he said.
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