On the morning of April 16, a man dressed in black circled health insurer Aetna’s corporate headquarters in Hartford, trying four separate entrances before finding one unlocked. He walked inside, approached an employee and dropped a backpack beside her desk.
At the time, roughly 25 senior Aetna and CVS executives were meeting in a secure conference room elsewhere in the building, according to WFSB, which cited an arrest warrant.
Aetna security personnel detained the man within three minutes. Inside the backpack was a loaded AR-style pistol — 11 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, according to authorities.
Police have not publicly identified a clear motive for why the armed man entered Aetna’s headquarters. According to the arrest warrant, the man told witnesses he was being followed. No one was injured and no shots were fired.
But for corporate security professionals and executives across the country, the incident underscored the heightened threat environment businesses have faced since the December 2024 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Since then, public companies — including major Connecticut insurers and others — have expanded executive protection programs, as boards increasingly view those measures not as executive perks, but as governance and business continuity safeguards, security experts say.
In the past, companies often hired security firms in response to specific incidents or concerns. Now, businesses are taking a more comprehensive approach, experts say.
“Organizations are now looking to build a protection program, not just respond to a single threat,” said Rory Moran, director of executive protection and threat analysis at United Security Inc., a New Jersey-based security firm with major operations in Connecticut. “It’s duty of care. They want to stay ahead and be proactive, not reactive.”
Property and casualty insurer The Hartford disclosed in its latest proxy filing that it hired an independent security firm in 2025 to conduct a comprehensive assessment, citing an “evolving external threat environment affecting corporate executives.”
Following that review, The Hartford required CEO Christopher Swift and President A. Morris “Mo” Tooker to use a corporate aircraft for all air travel, including personal trips. The program also extended residential security to Swift, Tooker and Chief Financial Officer Beth Costello, and added “PII scrubbing” — services that remove personal information from online databases. Swift and Tooker already had a company car and driver.
Publicly traded companies often disclose executive security costs in proxy filings alongside other executive perks and expenses.
Swift’s total disclosed fringe benefits totaled $604,754 in 2025, including $533,076 tied to personal use of a corporate aircraft. The remaining amount covered a mix of expenses, including non-security items such as an executive physical.
“The safety and security of our employees is a top priority,” said Matthew Sturdevant, a spokesman for The Hartford. “As part of our ongoing efforts to evaluate our corporate-security practices, we engaged an independent, third-party security firm last year, which led to enhancements to our executive security program.”
Meanwhile, The Travelers Cos., which employs thousands of workers at its Hartford campus, disclosed in its 2026 proxy that it spent $48,078 on personal security for CEO Alan Schnitzer in 2025 — including cybersecurity protection — along with $25,257 for personal use of a company car and driver.
Bloomfield-based health insurer The Cigna Group disclosed that CEO David Cordani is required to use corporate aircraft for both business and personal travel as a security measure.
Across corporate America, spending on executive protection has risen significantly in recent years. Among S&P 500 companies that disclosed executive protection perks, the median value reached $130,468 in 2025 — more than double the level reported in 2021 — according to a study by compensation data firm Equilar.
At the same time, the share of S&P 500 companies disclosing such benefits climbed from 23.6% in 2021 to 37.8% in 2025.
Mark Hjelle, CEO of Norwalk-based Protos Security, said demand for protection services has even spread beyond corporate clients to executives at midsize companies — particularly those with high public profiles or significant personal wealth. Those executives, he said, “are now procuring executive protection not only for themselves but for their families.”
‘Contagion effect’
Moran spent 22 years with the U.S. Secret Service protecting presidents, vice presidents and foreign heads of state before joining United Security last July. The company, which has roughly 1,800 employees nationally and nearly $100 million in annual revenue, opened a downtown Hartford office in January, adding to its existing Connecticut locations in Stamford and Fairfield.
Moran said threats against health insurance executives have increased amid consumer concerns over rising costs, denied claims and industry consolidation.
“Think about it this way,” he said. “If something negative is happening in the media around a particular industry — insurance, for example — those companies are likely seeing increased online threats directed at their executives. And then there’s a contagion effect.”
Hjelle said incidents like the Thompson killing can create broader challenges for companies.
In the weeks following the shooting, UnitedHealth’s stock fell nearly 20%, erasing more than $110 billion in market value, according to NBC News. Other major health insurers were swept up in the selloff — Aetna owner CVS Health fell more than 25% and Cigna dropped roughly 20%, the network reported.
“It’s a governance issue, a reputational issue, an employee morale issue,” Hjelle said.
Luigi Mangione, charged with Thompson’s murder, faces a New York state trial scheduled to begin Sept. 8 in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges including second-degree murder. A separate federal trial on interstate stalking charges is set for January 2027.
Security professionals said the sustained media attention surrounding both proceedings will likely keep the executive threat environment elevated.
Safety measures
A comprehensive corporate security program typically begins with intelligence gathering, experts said.
Moran said his team uses AI-supported software to monitor social media and open-source platforms for online references to clients, flagging elevated commentary, signs of fixation or threatening language.
The process also includes physical assessments of executives’ homes and offices, along with cyber-risk analysis aimed at identifying vulnerabilities ranging from personal social media exposure to weaknesses in home internet networks.
Security teams tailor protection levels to executives’ risk profiles, including when to deploy uniformed versus plainclothes personnel, Moran said. In high-traffic environments, visible security can serve as a deterrent. In private, the goal is often for security to blend in, he said.
“Our goal is to reduce their risk without increasing friction in their day-to-day life,” Moran said.
Security concerns are also contributing to increased corporate aircraft use, as companies seek to reduce executives’ exposure to public airports, crowded terminals, public Wi-Fi networks and other environments that could make their movements easier to track.
“An executive on a public network is vulnerable in ways most people don’t think about,” Moran said.
Security boom
Meantime, increased demand has reshaped the security industry, fueling rapid growth for companies like Protos Security.
The Norwalk-based company’s software platform coordinates personal protection operations across multiple locations through a national network of security partners.
Protos, which is backed by Greenwich private equity firm Southfield Capital, has expanded through 12 acquisitions since Hjelle became CEO in late 2022.
In April, the company acquired Virginia-based AT-RISK International, which specializes in executive protection and risk consulting.
Hjelle said the deal reflects growing demand for executive protection services and gives Protos the ability to support U.S.-based clients traveling internationally — a frequent request.
“Demand has really been skyrocketing the last 24 months,” he said, citing not only the Thompson killing but a series of other incidents, from the mass shooting last summer at a Midtown Manhattan office tower housing the National Football League and Blackstone to rising geopolitical risks.
Protos now employs roughly 500 full-time corporate workers, including about 100 in Connecticut. The company also operates what it says is the nation’s largest off-duty law enforcement network, with ties to more than 1,000 public safety agencies.
Hjelle said the company’s revenue has grown by more than 20% annually over the past several years.
Still, he said the most significant shift is not the volume of demand, but who is driving the conversations.
Until recently, executive protection discussions typically occurred among chief security officers and HR departments. Now, they are happening in boardrooms.
“The actual board of directors is now getting involved — saying we need this for governance, frankly for the health of the enterprise,” he said.
Hjelle acknowledged that many executives would prefer to forgo security altogether, viewing it as an intrusion on their daily lives.
“A lot of CEOs say, ‘I don’t really need it — I don’t want someone following me around,’” he said. “But it’s not really just about you. The more important consideration is the shareholders, employees and suppliers of your company who would all be negatively impacted by an event.”
