Brian R. Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, who was fatally shot in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday in what police called a brazen, targeted killing, spent more than 20 years ascending the ranks at one of the nation’s leading insurance businesses while raising a family in suburban Minneapolis.
Mr. Thompson, who was 50, lived with his wife, Paulette Thompson, and their younger son, Dane, in Maple Grove, Minn. An older son, Bryce, is a college freshman.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a perpetrator seen in security footage released by the New York Police Department was still at large. The motive for the killing was unknown, according to authorities. Mr. Thompson and other company executives were in New York for an annual investors’ meeting.
Mr. Thompson was rewarded with the top executive position at UnitedHealthcare, overseeing about 140,000 people, in April 2021, after a career with the company that began in 2004.
Before his promotion, he ran the division of the health insurance giant, based in Minnetonka, Minn., that oversaw its government insurance business, including Medicaid and Medicare plans.
The company’s Medicare Advantage plans, which are private insurance policies, had become a profit center with the retirement wave of aging baby boomers. UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the country.
“Brian’s experience, relationships and values make him especially well suited to help UnitedHealthcare improve how health care works for consumers, physicians, employers, governments and our other partners, leading to continued and sustained long-term growth,” Andrew Witty, the chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, the parent of the insurance company, said in a statement when Mr. Thompson was promoted.
On Wednesday, Mr. Witty said in a video message to employees, according to The Wall Street Journal: “Brian was a truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond. It’s a terrible tragedy.”
Mr. Thompson’s lengthy résumé with UnitedHealthcare showed a steady rise up the corporate ladder: chief financial officer of the Medicare and retirement business; chief financial officer of employer and individual insurance plans; chief financial officer of the division managing states’ Medicaid plans.
His first role at the company was director of corporate development for UnitedHealth Group, focusing on mergers and acquisitions. In his nearly four years in the position, UnitedHealth Group conducted more than $20 billion in business, according to Mr. Thompson’s LinkedIn résumé.
Before joining UnitedHealth, Mr. Thompson spent seven years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm.
He was hired fresh out of the University of Iowa, where he earned a B.A. in 1997 in business administration with an accounting major, according to the university.
Brian Robert Thompson was born on July 10, 1974, and raised in Jewell, Iowa, a rural community about 50 miles north of Des Moines. He was one of two sons of Dennis Thompson, who worked for 43 years at grain elevators in and around Jewell, and Pat (Hunter) Thompson.
He graduated from South Hamilton High School in Jewell.
He married Paulette Reveiz, a fellow Iowan, who works as a physical therapist with orthopedics patients. She survives him, along with his sons; his brother, Mark; and his mother.
Both of his sons attended Wayzata High School, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. Dane is a sophomore, and Bryce, who graduated in the spring, attends Indiana University, according to an online biography.
When Bryce played varsity lacrosse in high school, his parents “were present around all of the team events,” a coach, Brandon Carlson, told the newspaper.
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