How can I use openconnect in the background

I am going to connect to a VPN using openconnect on CEntOS 7 terminal. I only have one terminal because I am on a SSH session. I need to connect to the VPN using openconnect. I do so like this:

openconnect -u username us.myprovider.net

I need to run the VPN in the background and then do other things in the foreground. Currently, I start the VPN, I press Ctrl + Z and then press bg to send it to the background. But, this seems to close the VPN connection. How can I do that?