The high-profile death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson

At a University of Minnesota press conference in May 2022, Brian Thompson gathered with other messengers from the state to announce that they would host the 2026 Special Olympics USA. Speaking immediately after the Governor Tim Walz, Healthcare CEO noted in his nearly minute-and-a-half speech that “helping people live healthier lives” is the mission of UnitedHealth Group.

The appearance, while unremarkable, represented something of a contemporary peak in Thompson’s public profile. With the ability to oversee 140,000 employees at UnitedHealthcare—an insurance company that provides health insurance to more than 50 million people—his name is unlikely to be recognized outside of his industry. The sentiment he was expressing, insofar as it could resonate beyond that day, would only leave its mark as a formal ceremony.

In less than a week since his early morning execution on a midtown Manhattan street, Thompson has become the poster child for the failure of the American health care system across the board. Online reaction to his murder was unusually similar. brilliant celebration— suggests a round press reported that provided feedback regarding UnitedHealth’s track record of insurance denials and patient claims. When in doubt, Luigi Mangione, was arrested Monday on gun charges, but he is mostly seen as a social media curiosity, at worst if not a hero.

So who was Thompson, a CEO who was almost unknown when he was CEO, until suddenly he was no more – how does someone become a figure the public cheers for when he kills people? of Iowa Times-Republic newspaper is described Thompson’s ascent last week was called a “meteor.” The son of a grain elevator operator, he grew up in Jewell, a farming town of about 1,200 people. He was valedictorian and homecoming king of his high school class and, as a childhood friend told me, he seemed destined to become a leader.

“We don’t know how big he will be,” Taylor Hill, said a turkey farmer in the neighboring town of Stanhope. “But it is [his rise] Something that would surprise anyone in our class? ARE NOT.”

Thompson also graduated as valedictorian from the University of Iowa and worked as an accountant before joining UnitedHealth in 2004. He rose through the ranks and became a star employee within the company, but Hill continued to keep up with him over the years. recently. He said he knew Thompson as a good friend and a source of pride for his community.

“Brian had no opportunity, no way to speak up for himself, nothing,” Hill said. “This person just took him out, and it was disgusting. And what’s more amazing is that there are people out there who think this is a good thing.”

Little information has emerged about Thompson as a public figure in the days since he was shot. his wife, Paulette, says he has recently received some threats and there have been protests at UnitedHealth headquarters, but Thompson didn’t travel with a security detail. Reports also surfaced about other areas of possible conspiracy or wrongdoing, including the insider trading investigation, DWI and his and his wife’s private living quarters.

However, the main person involved in the case is Mangione, the 26-year-old man arrested on gun charges at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Monday. According to his rapidly dissected online footprint, he is a consumer of popular podcasts and follows Andrew Huberman And Joe Rogan on X. Like Thompson, he was high school valedictorian and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied computer science.

In a leak video address on Friday, Andrew witty, The CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company asked his employees to ignore the emerging public sentiment—widespread and widespread discontent that he described as “serious noise.” The British executive was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honors for “services to the UK economy and pharmaceutical industry,” and in his speech last week he included made his most famous statement about Thompson’s newly visible legacy. “The mission of this company is really to make sure that we help the system improve by making the experience of individuals better,” Witty said. “No one has done more to try to advance that mission than Brian Thompson.”