UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s Family and Friends Speak Out ArticlePure

Those who knew Brian Thompson when he was young believed he was going to succeed. They were right. At the time of his death, he was the CEO of the largest health insurer in the United States, which is one of America’s largest companies.

“One of his classmates and his best friend said, ‘He’s the smartest kid in our class and the smartest kid I’ve ever known,’” family friend Kelly Wirtz says in a new documentary. “It’s not easy, coming from a small town, I kind of knew he was bound for great things.”

The documentary, Who Is Luigi Mangione?, airing on ID and streaming on Max, profiles Thompson and the eponymous suspect, who is charged with murder and terrorism.

Thompson was murdered, execution-style, in a pre-dawn shooting on the outside the Hilton Midtown in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman approach from behind and shoot Thompson, who was walking toward the hotel, which was hosting an investors event. 

“I just want people to know that this was a young boy who worked hard to be successful,” says Wirtz. “He could have done a lot of good in this world and he was taken way too soon.”

A subsequent manhunt led to the arrest of Mangione, who authorities allege targeted Thompson because of the suspect’s ill will toward the health insurance industry.

Before his death, Thompson was a well-liked Midwesterner who came from humble beginnings. An Iowa native, Thompson was South Hampton High School’s valedictorian in 1993 before attending the University of Iowa, where he graduated at the top of his class.

Thompson began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers before he was hired at UnitedHealthcare in 2004.

His rise to the top of the healthcare giant culminated with him being named CEO in 2021. His colleagues described him as sharp and personable.

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“Brian Thompson did climb the corporate ladder very successfully and relatively quickly,” says former health insurance executive Wendell Potter in the documentary. “[He] helped that company become very, very profitable.” 

Outside of work, Thompson had two sons with his wife, Paulette, whom he met at Iowa.

“I called them the Leave It to Beaver family,” recalls Wirtz. “They were always walking in, dressed nicely .. A family I envied and idolized because they were just wonderful people.”

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Though Thompson and Paulette were separated at the time of his death, they were on amicable terms, living near each other in Maple Grove, Minn.

“Brian was a wonderful person with a big heart and who lived life to the fullest,” Paulette said in a recording featured in the documentary. “Our hearts were broken and we are completely devastated by this news. He touched so many lives.”

Mangione was charged with 11 counts of stalking, murder and terrorism in New York, and faces additional federal charges that could carry the death penalty, if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.