C.E.O.s on edge
On the sidelines of the DealBook Summit on Wednesday, one topic dominated discussions: the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s C.E.O., Brian Thompson, just blocks away in Midtown Manhattan by a shooter who is still at large.
The killing of even a C.E.O. who was not well-known publicly has many executives worried about their own safety.
“Any C.E.O. has people who don’t like them,” Seth Besmertnik, the head of a software company, told The Times’s Emma Goldberg. “C.E.O.s have to let people go. C.E.O.s have people competing with their business.”
Executives are rethinking protection. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who runs Yale’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, told The Times that he had received a flood of phone calls on Wednesday about planned protection for a C.E.O. conference that he is hosting later this month in Manhattan.
Matthew Dumpert, a managing director of Kroll’s Enterprise Security Risk Management, told CNBC that his company had received a bunch of calls from C.E.O.s looking to upgrade their protection.
And Kathryn Wylde, the C.E.O. of the Partnership for New York City, said Mayor Eric Adams called her on Wednesday, told her that the shooting appeared to have been targeted and asked her to notify members of the partnership.
More executives have faced targeted attacks over the past five years, Chris Pierson, the C.E.O. of the digital executive protection firm BlackCloak, told The Times. That is partly because digital platforms have made it easier to obtain information about identities and locations, and social media has fanned the flames of vitriol.
Companies are already spending more on executive protection. The median amount spent on executive security among the S&P 500 companies that disclose such information doubled from 2021 to 2023, Equilar, an executive compensation research firm, told The Times.
About 20 percent of S&P 500 companies disclose at least some of the security services they provide their C.E.O.s, according to CNBC. Moderna and Pfizer disclosed last year that they spent at least $1 million on protection for executives, while Walgreens said in a securities filing before the shooting that it provides home security services for its leader. (Health care companies have faced a torrent of hate online after the killing.)
The latest on the investigation: The authorities were looking into potential evidence including security-camera images and words written on ammunition found at the scene, as well as the suspect’s stay at a hostel and his potential use of a fake ID.
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING
Boeing’s plea deal to resolve two fatal 737 MAX crashes is rejected over a D.E.I. provision. A Texas judge threw out the agreement because it linked diversity, equity and inclusion policies to choosing a monitor to oversee the company’s compliance rather than basing the decision on “competency.” The ruling comes amid a wider backlash against corporate D.E.I. policies.
The leader of South Korea’s governing party calls for impeaching the president. In a reversal, Han Dong-hoon said President Yoon Suk Yeol was unfit to rule, further isolating the country’s leader after he briefly imposed martial law this week and plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy into crisis.
Emmanuel Macron vowed to stay in office. The French president lashed out at opposition leaders for sowing chaos by bringing down Prime Minister Michel Barnier, and said he would serve out his five-year term, which ends in 2027. Macron said he would appoint a government from across the political spectrum in the coming days, and could pass an emergency budget to maintain public services.
McKinsey agrees to pay $122 million to settle South African bribery cases. The fine for the consulting firm will resolve a felony bribery investigation, the latest in a series of penalties against the company including about $1 billion for its work with opioid makers. McKinsey was accused of bribing South African officials to win contracts.
Going all in on crypto and A.I. policy
David Sacks rose up Silicon Valley’s ranks as a lieutenant of Elon Musk’s at PayPal and then as an outspoken conservative investor, Republican donor and co-host of the popular “All-In” podcast.
He has now parlayed that into a prominent advisory position in the Trump administration for two of his key interests: artificial intelligence and crypto.
Sacks will become the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar,” President-elect Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday. The role gives the venture capitalist a way to shape the kind of permissive oversight of those technologies that he has long backed. He’ll also lead the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.
Sacks is expected to work closely with Musk, whom he had publicly pushed to get more involved in Republican politics.
It’s a high-profile reward for Sacks, who hosted a fund-raiser for Trump in San Francisco in June and spoke at the Republican National Convention. The Times reports that Sacks won a battle within the Trump transition effort: While some had pitched for separate roles to advise on policies for A.I. and for crypto, Sacks was chosen to oversee both.
That said, the advisory position is a part-time one, since he didn’t want to cause issues for his venture capital firm by leaving for a full-time government job. Sacks also doesn’t have to divest or publicly disclose his investments.
It continues a pattern in Trump administration appointments. The president-elect’s picks for several top positions — including commerce secretary, S.E.C. chair and Musk as chief government-services cutter — favor going easier on crypto, an industry that spent heavily to back the Trump campaign. (Trump himself has a crypto business.)
Speaking of Musk …
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The influential Trump adviser and Vivek Ramaswamy, his co-head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, met with congressional Republicans. The event was long on suggestions for cutting government spending and photo ops but short on what DOGE would actually do.
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The tech mogul dished out more than $250 million to help get Trump elected, according to federal disclosure forms. That included a $20 million donation to a super PAC named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg that sought to soften Trump’s anti-abortion positions.
In other Trump transition news: The president-elect picked David Perdue, a former Georgia senator who previously led Reebok and Dollar General, as the U.S. ambassador to China.
A big jobs report
Some consumers may be pulling back on spending, but the U.S. economy continues to show signs of strength. That bodes well for President-elect Donald Trump’s ambitions to cut taxes while not spooking deficit hawks and the bond market.
A big test comes this morning with the release of the November jobs report. It’s one of the final pieces of economic data the Fed will get before its Dec. 17-18 rate-setting meeting.
Here’s what to watch for:
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Economists expect the report to show that hiring rebounded, with employers having added about 215,000 jobs last month, up from 12,000 in October. (That report was something of an outlier, dented by the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and a strike at Boeing.)
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The unemployment rate is forecast to remain steady at 4.1 percent.
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A big focus will be on the labor participation rate and wage growth, which will provide the latest indication of the labor market’s health, and its potential effect on inflation.
Any sign of a labor market cool-down could reinforce calls for a rate cut. The futures market this morning saw a 70 percent chance of the central bank lowering borrowing costs later this month for a third straight time. Beyond that, the path is less certain.
Jay Powell, the Fed chair, told Andrew at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday that the economy was strong, and that progress on bringing down inflation had stalled, effectively reducing the urgency to cut rates. “The good news is that we can afford to be a little more cautious,” he said.
Businesses are showing signs of caution, too. This week’s Fed Beige Book survey of regional economic activity revealed that companies were more upbeat about growth in 2025 but they “are not as optimistic about adding head count,” Jeffrey Roach, the chief economist at LPL Financial, said in a research note.
Notre-Dame’s return to glory
In France, they’re calling it the “Réouverture,” the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. This weekend’s ceremony is expected to be an international show of force featuring scores of dignitaries, including President-elect Donald Trump, and a who’s who of Wall Street financiers.
The $1 billion renovation was a herculean effort bankrolled by business leaders and corporate foundations, Vivienne Walt reports for DealBook. The event is also a rare victory for President Emmanuel Macron of France, who vowed to speedily restore the landmark after a 2019 blaze tore through parts of the structure.
French luxury moguls and American individuals were part of the multimillion-dollar rescue effort. The family of Bernard Arnault of LVMH gave $200 million, and François-Henri Pinault of Kering gave $100 million.
About 45,000 Americans donated roughly $57 million, the second-highest contribution after French ones, Michel Picaud, head of the U.S.-registered nonprofit group Friends of Notre-Dame, told DealBook. American tax-deduction rules also helped, he said.
Big donors are among the invitees this weekend. They include the tech mogul Eric Schmidt; Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot; Henry Kravis, the private equity titan; and Bank of America and Citigroup executives. Ken Griffin, the C.E.O. of Citadel, is expected to arrive on Monday.
Notre-Dame has been transformed inside. Extensive work has removed much of the fire damage and centuries of grime, rendering brightly colored columns and eye-popping stained glass tableaux, DealBook saw on a tour this week.
“This experience has transformed us too,” said Philippe Jost, the chief of the restoration task force. “We leave with tears in our eyes.”
More funds are needed — including $100 million to restore the vast stone exterior that is still under scaffolding. Fund-raising became increasingly difficult during and after the pandemic.
“It was not an easy task,” said Picaud, who made about 30 fund-raising trips to the United States. “Americans move from one cause to another.”
France’s political turmoil hasn’t helped. Macron’s business-friendly presidency has assisted in pulling in record foreign investment into France. But repeated political crises have chilled that money flow, Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe, regional chief investment officer for the investment firm Lombard Odier, told Bloomberg.
THE SPEED READ
Deals
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Intel added two veteran semiconductor executives to its board, days after the beleaguered chipmaker pushed out Pat Gelsinger as C.E.O. (Bloomberg)
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The British insurer Aviva agreed to buy a smaller rival, Direct Line, in a $4.6 billion deal to create an insurance giant. (Reuters)
Politics and policy
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Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from a Supreme Court case whose outcome could benefit Philip Anschutz, a Colorado billionaire with whom he has longstanding ties. (NYT)
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New York City lawmakers are weighing a reversal of some restrictions on Airbnb rentals that opponents say have drastically increased lodging costs there. (WSJ)
Best of the rest
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GRATs and I Dig Its: How Jensen Huang, the C.E.O. of the chip-making titan Nvidia, is on pace to avoid paying perhaps $8 billion in taxes. (NYT)
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“Inside ‘Rail Force One’: The Trains That Take World Leaders to Ukraine” (NYT)
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The latest way to look rich, apparently: wear this jacket. (WSJ)
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The post The Growing Cost of Making C.E.O.s Safe appeared first on New York Times.
