Corrupt Corporate Executive: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

A senior manager, CEO or owner of a major definitely-for-profit corporation who is out to make as much [[Greed|money]] and gain as much power as possible, by any means available, regardless of who suffers. To that end, they are perfectly willing to violate business or social ethics, commit crimes (ranging from fraudulent accounting to mass murder), and devastate Mother Nature and human communities, justifying those actions under the name of "just business". They are confident that all they have to do is [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|spread enough money around to get their way or avoid punishment,]] and are very likely to cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and/or become [[The Unfettered]] in their search for profit.

* ''[[Shugo Chara]]'': While the show is 'extraordinarily' supportive of [[Follow Your Dreams|large amounts of ambition,]] both [[Shrouded in Myth|Gozen]] and his "director", Kazamu Hoshina, both definitely' count for this, although, unlike most examples, they are not motivated by money: Gozen just asks for the Embryo, and Kazamu does as he says. However, while an all - being source of infinite powers in the "care" of a couple of bastards may be a very annoying thing indeed, it's what 'makes' them bastards that throw them straight to this trope: Their methods. Their worst crime would be breaking or corrupting horrifically large amounts of Heart's Eggs, thus stopping the dreams of what would probably be hundreds of children, in order to get the Embryo. As for {{spoiler|Kazamu's foolishness while attempting to give Gozen, A.K.A. Hikaru Ichinomiya, his grandson, easter's C.E.O. position, due both towards a distaste of the (Would be forced.) former proposed heir towards the easter heritage, Aruto, partly due towards his (Acheived.) dream of playing his violin, and due towards him emigrating, alone, within order towards avoiding running that company, and an action asking to use a "fitting" heir for easter: Blackmailing throughout violence Souko, Aruto's former wife, towards marrying him, thus giving him parental authority of both Aruto and Souko's children: Ikuto and Utau}}

* Extensively referenced in the [[Cyberpunk]] series ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'', where not only are GENOM's executives corrupt, but also controlling both the police and local government via a [[Government Conspiracy]].

* From ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'':

** Sakyou and the Black Black Club. Gambling on the torture and destruction of demons, and organizing a tournament for this reason, just to earn more money... these people DEFINE "corrupt".

** There is also the Dark Tournament Committee, who are easily bribed to impose increasingly absurd restrictions on the heroes during their fight with Team Masho.

** Gozaburo Kaiba and the Big Five. Gozaburo [[Training From Hell|put Seto Kaiba through hell]] to mold him into his idea of the proper replacement for him and had no qualms with manufacturing and selling weapons to just about anyone for the right price. The Big Five, meanwhile, made plenty of deals behind Kaiba's back after he gained control of the company and reinvented it as a gaming distributor, including ''kidnapping Kaiba's own brother'', in order to oust him as chairman and revert the company to its former warmongering ways.

** Pegasus fits this as well, using his power as the head of Industrial Illusions and host of the Duellist Kingdom tournament for all its worth.

* From ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'':

** Their rivals, the Crimson Group, are even worse, financing the terrorist coup in the movie.

* Ajo from ''[[Key the Metal Idol]]''. When he wasn't busy traveling to foreign countries to sell them illegal weapons, he was murdering people who got in his way ([[Anyone Can Die|no matter how much the audience may like them]]), kidnapping homeless people to extract their gel {{spoiler|(and robbing them of their humanity in the process)}}, extorting people, abusing women, or, in the end, {{spoiler|building a giant reactor to steal the essence from 50,000 people at a concert.}} All apparently to fuel his robot fetish.

* The Gowa family and Symbol from ''[[Gasaraki]]'' seem to be this at first. {{spoiler|In reality things are much more complicated than this, although Kazukiyo Gowa comes pretty close to fitting the trope}}.

** {{spoiler|Comes close? Kazukiyo Gowa is pretty goddamned corrupt, from using hollowed out demons to develop mecha, resulting in his brother's death, his adopted brother's borderline slavery to the family and nearly killing his sister for a new demon, to taking part in a coup that will result in either Japan being left completely bankrupt, or Japan and America both completely bankrupt, only to get a hold of the entire county's financial Data, so he can restart the stockmarket with his hands holding all the cards.}}

* The Siberian Railroad from ''[[Overman King Gainer]]'' uses the monopoly they have to overcharge people on everything, and since the only way to get anything is to use the Siberian Railroad they can do whatever they want.

* ''[[Akumetsu]]'' cuts his way through a lot of these.

* Oyama from the [[Alternate Continuity|2009 TV special]] of ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]''. He isn't into money so much as he is into [[A God I Am|playing God with animals]].

* {{spoiler|Albert Maverick}} from ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]''. He's willing to {{spoiler|make deals with crime syndicates, murder people who know too much, and mess with a child's mind to make a new popular hero}} ''just to keep ratings up''. Oh, and did we mention that {{spoiler|said child was the son of two of his victims, and another victim worked as his caretaker?}} Made even worse by how {{spoiler|he has NEXT powers too... in which he can [[Fake Memories|rewrite people's memories.]] And he ''very'' much uses them.}}

== Comic Books ==

** In his appearances on ''[[Justice League]]'', wherein he discovers that he is dying from radiation poisoning from prolonged exposure to kryptonite, Luthor returns to his [[Mad Scientist]] role as he snaps and acquires a power suit to take the fight directly to Superman, whom he blames for his condition. Later, Luthor is cured of his disease, pardoned for his crimes as a super-villain, and in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' becomes a [[President Evil|corrupt ''politician'' ]] as a cover for his true plan.

** As well as Superman, Luthor has a hate on for [[Batman]] and [[Secret Identity|Bruce Wayne]] ''independently'' due to being a corrupt exec. LexCorp's main rival for several years of [[DC Comics]] continuity has been stated to be WayneTech, Bruce Wayne's company, and Batman has taken some glee in foiling Luthor's schemes as a superhero and as a business competitor. In fact, not only did he and Superman engineer Luthor's end as president of the United States, Bruce Wayne bought his company headquarters out from under him.

** Hammer's daughter, Justine Hammer, also becomes one when she takes over the company.

* Walter Declun from [[Marvel]] took over ''[[Damage Control]]'', a company that specializes in cleaning up after superhero/supervillain fights. In order to increase profits, Declun manipulated supervillains to cause as much damage as possible and gave some of them mutant growth hormone to increase their powers. This indirectly led to the Stamford incident, which in turn led to the infamous ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' story arc.

** A more typical example is R. W. Trickler of General American Oil in ''The Broken Ear''.

* [[Norman Osborn]], not only a corrupt Exec, he's also a crazy one.

* Marvel had an actual criminal organization called The Corporation at one point, although, in something of a reversal, they ''started'' as a villainous organization (Hydra) that reorganized itself along business company lines (including things such as insurance packages for its members!)

* Another Marvel example of sorts is Hexus, the Living Corporation, although that happened to an alien [[Hive Mind]] that drew its power from people's obsession with its products.

* ''[[Las Man Standing]]'' has the president of [[Mega Corp|Armtech]], Abram.

* The classic [[Marvel Universe]] version is the Roxxon Energy Corporation, a corporation whose management is perfectly willing, even eager, to use any underhanded and/or criminal tactics to secure its profits. While all the superheroes are ready to fight them, [[Iron Man]] is particularly enthusiastic since their antics make his own company look bad.

* Gordon Gekko of ''[[Wall Street]]'' being the most obvious.

* Any part Dabney Coleman plays, with the uber-example being Franklin Hart in ''[[Nine to Five|9 to 5]]''.

** In the live-action series, the Old Man is considerably more well-meaning and altruistic; still expects a profit margin, but not willing to cause undue suffering to get there. His company, however, is crawling with CCEs on every level, providing handy throwaway villains for every episode. The Old Man is constantly surprised that someone with a Harvard education could be so corrupt.

** Seemingly the only remotely honest person working at OCP is Donald Johnson who was Bob Morton's #2 at Security Concepts, and even he has ''some'' morally ambiguous dealings

** Similarly, Elektra King, daughter and heir to her father's Mediterranean oil pipeline, seduced her captor, murdered her father, kidnapped M, and plotted to destroy Istanbul so her pipeline would get more use. She's so much of a twisted villain, she's currently the only Bond Woman Bond himself has killed in cold blood.

* Carter Burke from ''[[Aliens]]''. Though not a CEO, he's the only member of [[The Squad]] who answers directly to the [[Mega Corp]] that owns the infested colony and constantly endangers everyone by putting his own agenda (capturing and weaponizing the eponymous aliens for profit) ahead of everyone else.

* Lamon Montgomery from ''[[Bee Movie]]''.

* The cleanliness obsessed boss from the movie version of ''[[Dr. Seuss|Cat in the Hat]]''.

* Noah Cross from ''[[Chinatown]]'' is one of the greatest examples in cinema. A [[Complete Monster|cunning, ruthless, and perverse sociopath]], Cross, already the richest and most powerful man in Los Angeles, {{spoiler|renders vast farmlands arid by illegally dumping their irrigation water into the ocean, thus causing their prices to plummet to next to nothing. After forcing the farmers to sell their land to his cabal of corrupt business partners, Cross intends to develop his newly acquired land by irrigating it with the water supply diverted from the city itself, through a new aqueduct and reservoir built from $8 million of taxpayer money. His only gain from this elaborate swindle is "''The future!''"}} What's worse, this doesn't even include his more...[[Moral Event Horizon|shocking crimes]].

** [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] types seem to be a common [[Big Bad]] for comic book movies, including Norman Osborn in ''[[Spider-Man]] 1'', Kingpin in ''[[Daredevil]]'' and Obadiah Stane in ''[[Iron Man]]''.

*** Except that all those guys already ''were'' CCEs of one stripe or another in the comics. Doom is so much ''more'' than that.

* Rachel Bitterman from ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]''.

* The board of directors of the toy company in ''[[The Santa Clause]].'' Tim Allen's character only realizes there's a problem after he starts turning into Santa Claus.

** Calling them corrupt seems a bit harsh. They never do anything evil or even unpleasant. The worst thing they do is replace Santa's sleigh with "Total Tank" for their commercial.

* In ''Santa Claus: The Movie'' (1985) the evil CEO B.Z. (John Lithgow) is firstly vilified as an evil CEO who knowingly produces unsafe toys for children. (Why he would make teddy bears stuffed with sawdust and nails when presumably other metal things that WEREN'T construction nails probably would be cheaper isn't elaborated on... he's evil, get it?) When he gets the chance to market candy that will allow those who eat it to temporarily float or fly, he leaps at the chance to make millions and save his reputation, despite the fact that he has to (with no compunctions) [[Kick the Dog]] by shrugging off the knowledge that many children are likely to die due to the second, stronger version of the candy exploding if it gets too hot; he intends to take the money and escape to Rio before people find out about the danger.

* [[Devil in Plain Sight|Daniel Plainview]] (Note the [[Meaningful Name]]) of ''[[There Will Be Blood]]''.

* Paul F. Tomkins from ''[[Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny]]'' who turns out to {{spoiler|actually be Satan.}}

** Although he isn't a corporate executive so much as a {{spoiler|stage compere (Open Mike Guy)}}.

{{quote| '''Mike (as Robertson):''' Hi, I'm Bob Evil!}}

** "I leave for ten minutes, and Evil Co is in ''shambles''!"

* Played for laughs with [[Tom Cruise]]'s character from ''[[Tropic Thunder]]''.

* Rutger Hauer's Richard Earle, from ''[[Batman Begins]]''. Rapacious, cold, ruthless, swapping out philanthropy for weapons sales -- definitely not true to Thomas Wayne's legacy. (And demoting [[Morgan Freeman]]'s Lucius to the basement!) Must have been the role model for ''[[Iron Man]]'''s {{spoiler|Obadiah...}}

* As mentioned above, Joseph Pulitzer in ''[[Newsies]]''. He raises the wholesale price of his newspapers by 10% because he wants more money (and who cares about the starving homeless orphans who have to pay for it?). Later, when his actions have provoked a strike that actually ''costs'' him money, he still won't back down, because giving in to demands from ragged street kids would make him look weak.

* William Easton in ''[[Saw]] VI'' ''seems'' to be this, but he doesn't quite fit the mold as shown {{spoiler|each time he has to let someone die}}.

* Daniel Clamp, the Donald Trump parody in ''[[Gremlins|Gremlins 2]]'' is something of a subversion; he's no great intellect and is more than a little thoughtless, vain, superficial and shallow, but underneath it all he seems to have a genuinely good heart. Reportedly he was ''supposed'' to be one of these played straight, but John Glover -- no stranger to playing villains -- was reportedly sick of doing the same thing and decided to play against the script.

* Sidney J. Mussburger in ''[[The Hudsucker Proxy]]''.

* In ''[[Dogma]]'', Bartleby and Loki visit a board of executives and reveal each and every one (save for one female board member) to be [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] guilty of something horrible. The worst of them has more skeletons in his closet than the rest of the board put together. After messing with their heads, Loki kills them all except the aforementioned woman (and he nearly offs her for not saying 'God bless you' when he sneezed).

** Right before [[The Caper]] begins, Saito dismisses Cobb's worries that he'll be arrested as soon as the plane lands by saying that as soon as the job is done he'll make [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|a single phone call]] which will get Cobb past Immigration. {{spoiler|At the job's end, despite having just spent ''decades'' of [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|subjective time]] in Limbo and finally returning to reality...[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|the first thing he does is pick up the phone, just as promised]].}}

* ''[[The Net]]'' has Bill Gates [[Captain Ersatz]] Jeff Gregg, who uses the [[Xanatos Gambit]] of a cyberterrorist ring to convince the US Government to use his anti-virus program - which is programmed with a backdoor to allow those in the know easy access.

* Gatewood in ''[[Stagecoach]]''.

* Really averted in ''[[Local Hero]]'' - an American oil company is planning to buy a coastal village in Scotland to turn into a refinery/distribution center, and the villagers are all delighted at the prospect of selling out. Meanwhile, the CEO's main interest seems to be what's in the night sky there.

* {{spoiler|Robert}}, to an extent, in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.

* Travis from ''[[Congo]]'' is so obsessed with making money that he sends out multiple expeditions into the [[Banana Republic|dangerous African jungle]] to search for diamonds that will make his company billions of dollars. When the members of the expeditions keep dying off, he doesn't care. He just sends more people out in the hopes that at least one of them will retrieve the diamonds.

== Literature ==

* Occurs several times in David Wingrove's ''[[Chung Kuo]]'' series

* Newman King, founder and CEO of the eponymous retail chain of [[Bentley Little]]'s ''The Store''. Whereas the average CCE causes suffering as a side-effect of their ruthless pursuit of profit, King and his organization go out of their way to cause completely unnecessary suffering ''on top of'' the side-effects of his ruthless pursuit of profit. The company's corporate motto might as well be "[[For the Evulz]]." The Store sets up shop in small towns, buys the local government and puts small business owners out of business, like a relatively normal company might. But then it also does things like buy up the town's utilities so it can spy on people's phone calls and e-mails, murder small business owners, , force employees to go out and beat the homeless, stock child pornography and other bizarre, illegal products, whore out female employees, sic zombies on people, trick a man into having sex with his own daughter and send his wife the videotape of it, etc.

* Derek Leech in assorted fiction by [[Kim Newman]]; a [[Strawman Political|living embodiment of Thatcherism]] or an [[Anonymous Ringer]] of [[Rupert Murdoch]] crossed with [[Satan]] himself.

* This occurs many times in the ''[[Destroyer]]''. The example that comes to mind is the Executive of the Vox network trying to take over a rival via using the Evil AI FRIEND.

* The emissaries from the Western Galactic Empire in Robert Zubrin's ''The Holy Land'', who arrange for the export of [[Applied Phlebotinum|helicity]] from Earth. They seem like average sorts until it becomes obvious that the technology they help Earth import in exchange is used to murder hundreds of billions of innocent people and transform America into a totalitarian regime, and yet their biggest worry is the imminent formation of a [[Recycled in Space|Space OPEC]] that cuts into profit margins.

* ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'''s [[Meaningful Name|Psychlos]] have a disproportionate number of corrupt corporate executives: [[Big Bad]] Terl's whole plan is to get access to some gold off the company records, and is able to <s>blackmail</s> [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word|gain "leverage" over]] his boss by exposing the latter's embezzlements. Their race even has company regulations allowing planetary overseers to take whatever actions deemed necessary to ensure a profit.

* Felix Jongleur, founder and owner of [[Mega Corp|J Corp]] in [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'', seems to feel that it's his right as the oldest living human being to use his financial power to find a way to cheat death, regardless of the cost in terms of money, lives, or morality.

* Pavel Kazakov from the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Warrior Class''. A Russian oilman with the goal of building an oil pipeline in the Balkans as part of re-strengthening the Fatherland, he is [[The Dreaded|feared]] even by the Russian higher-ups, [[Shrouded in Myth|rumoured]] to be a powerful [[The Mafiya|Mafiya boss]] and druglord and certainly in possession of much violent power.

** Harold Kingman from ''Act of War'', a slimy and well-connected oilman whose facilities [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|eco-terrorist group GAMMA]] seek to wreck. When he tries to get Jason Richter and the [[Impossibly Graceful Giant|CID]] technology into his hands, Jason's refusal is empathic.

* The Privy Council of the [[Sten]] Series is a [[Five-Bad Band]] of CCE's, whose ruthless money-grubbing is eclipsed only by their perverse proclivities.

* Occasional antagonists in the ''[[Bolo]]'' universe.

* Sir John Charnage from the [[Young Bond]] novel ''Double or Die''.

* Xanatos, Qui-Gon's former apprentice in ''[[Jedi Apprentice]]'', is the head of Offworld, one of the largest mining consortiums in the galaxy. Under his control, Offworld has stripped numerous planets of their resources, blackmailed and/or bribed governments, and backed criminal politicians on several planets. Its front company UniFy in ''The Day of Reckoning'' is no better, keeping the population of Telos pacified with [[Bread and Circuses]] while they stripmine the planets holy spaces, and contaminate their sacred pools with chemicals. And that's leaving out the fact that Offworld is also involved with the illegal slave trade, and Xanatos' terrorist vendetta against the Jedi.

* There are many of these in ''[[Daemon]]'', working with unsavoury [[Private Military Contractors]] to try and preserve the status quo.

* ''[[Transformers Trans Tech]]'' story "I, Lowtech" has protagonist Bulletbike, whose only redeeming quality is that he's ''technically'' never broken a law or directly injured anyone. [[Protagonist Journey to Villain|Then he gets worse]]. His [[Arch Enemy]] Ego is no better, and it's implied [[There Are No Good Executives]] period.

* ''[[Transformers Shattered Glass]]'' has {{spoiler|the human R.J. Blackrock}}, who turns out to be [[Playing Both Sides]] so he can later {{spoiler|kill all of the Cybertronians}} for his own benefit.

* Max Barry's ''Machine Man'' has The Manager, head of Better Future. The bastard even smirkingly admits to {{spoiler|putting an [[EMP]] in Lola's heart.}} Well. At least before Dr. Neumann {{spoiler|kills him via [[Destination Defenestration]]}}.

* Peter Sharpe of the Prometheus Corporation, from [[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]], describes the Prometheans as shepherds and humanity as sheep. Two guesses on how much value he assigns to the lives of people who aren't "enlightened."

*** Say what? In the second episode, he framed an innocent man for murder and had him sent to prison for 20 years. The man's crime? Knowing that Profit framed his predecessor for corporate espionage and murdered his father!

**** Uh, no. That man was not innocent. Profit would never have framed him if he hadn't been trying to frame Profit for the murder of someone who'd died of natural causes--Profit just hung the frame he'd created on him.

* A good pre-80s example is Tobias Vaughn from the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story ''The Invasion''. As noted above, he was very much a corporate Blofeld.

** Also, The Collector from the 4th Doctor episode ''The Sun Makers'' - defeated when the Doctor taxed him to death.

** And there's Morgus from ''The Caves of Androzani'', who murdered the president, conducted industrial sabotage on his own company, arranged for vagrants to toil in his work camps and perpetuated a planetary civil war just to keep his profit margins acceptably high.

** The new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has Henry van Statten, whose computer company is based on stolen [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] including an imprisoned Dalek, and Vaughn's [[Alternate Universe]] successor, John Lumic, creator of new Cybermen. Plus Kazran Sardick from the 2010 Christmas special, a man so bitter that he was going to let 4003 people die in a spaceliner crash - not for the LOLZ, not because he was evil, but because he just didn't care. Also the Editor from "The Long Game", and Max Capricorn from "Voyage of the Damned".

* Likewise, most of the higher-ups at [[Dollhouse|Rossum]], though the person at the top is [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|not]].

* Tony Soprano from ''[[The Sopranos]]'' sort of counts as this.

* In the same vein as the above, Russell "Stringer" Bell" of ''[[The Wire]]'' has very clear aspirations to ''become'' a CCE and ascend from his status as just a drug kingpin, and takes economics classes at a community college and starts buying up housing properties to this effect. {{spoiler|His own ruthless, double-dealing nature comes back to haunt him, though, and he's killed before any of these plans can come into fruition.}}

* ''[[SCTV]]'' satirised this with the characters Guy Cabalero (played by Joe Flaherty) and Mayor Tommy Shanks (played by John Candy). Another John Candy character that qualifies as this is Johnny LaRue.

* One of the stock bad guy types on ''[[MacGyver]]''.

* Damon in ''[[Enlightened]]'' is an example of this trope. Abaddonn is already shaping up to be a pretty nasty company on its own merits, added to which he is up to dodgy financial practices.

* Domyoji Kaede, at least in the j-drama continuity of ''[[Hana Yori Dango]]'' is implied to use unethical practices to secure her company's massive, monopoly-esque corporate empire.

* The [[Korean Series]] version of the above example, ''[[Boys Before Flowers]]'', has the [[Evil Matriarch]] systematically destroying her son's love interest's livelihood, while manipulating the corporate empire she created. This includes telling her own children that their father died {{spoiler|when in fact he was in a stroke-induced coma}}.

* Another example of a [[Korean Drama]] is ''[[Can You Hear My Heart]]''. CEO Choi delibrately witholds oxygen to his ill father-in-law in order to inherit the company. And that's just for starters...

* Vexcor's Essa Rompkin and Brion Boxer, the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of ''[[Charlie Jade]]''. As heads of a literally above the law [[Mega Corp]], bribery and having people killed are child's play for them. The really impressive bits are Boxer's plan to steal the water from a parallel earth to replenish the one his company's polluted, a process which will destroy a third universe as a side-effect, or how, to rejuvenate the decrepit Boxer, Essa calls employees up to her office and forces them on the spot to consent -- under the threat that they and their family will almost certainly be condemned to poverty if they refuse -- to a fatal medical procedure wherein Boxer essentially drains the life out of them.

** Their government taxes bribes. 'Nuff said.

*** So does ours. (USA) You report it on line 21 of the form 1040.

* The villains on ''[[Damages]]''. Unless they're [[Dirty Cop|Dirty Cops]] who just work for one.

* The NID from ''[[Stargate]]'' verse, though they only wanted to get access to alien tech. After they got rooted out, the Trust took over instead.

* B.P. Richfield of ''[[Dinosaurs]]'', who's willing to do anything to make a profit, {{spoiler|including causing an Ice Age that will kill the dinosaurs. His only thought was that heaters, blankets, and cocoa were selling like hotcakes.}}

* ''[[Smallville]]'': [[Magnificent Bastard|Lionel Luthor]] and his son/[[Bastard Understudy|successor]], [[Manipulative Bastard|Lex]], used their company, LuthorCorp to perform illegal experiments, research and try to control alien life, and increase their own personal power and wealth no matter who got hurt in the process; Lex's [[Number Two]], [[Smug Snake|Regan Matthews]] ends up being one by default due to his [[Undying Loyalty]] to his boss. [[The Baroness|Tess Mercer]], who replaced the Luthor's at the company's helm, is a different variation: a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] who used her position to try and force Clark, her chosen [[Messiah]] into becoming a hero, via the blackest means possible. Then there's [[Alternate Universe|Earth-2 Lionel]], who managed to combine this trope with [[Diabolical Mastermind]], fusing their [[Mega Corp]] with the Metropolis underworld and essentially becoming [[The Emperor]]. The show also has a subversion in [[Green Arrow]]/[[Vigilante Man|Oliver Queen]], who while a definite [[Anti-Hero]] is one of the strongest forces for justice in-series.

== Music ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjGASsP2co0 The song] of the page quote.

** As is UFO's "A Self Made Man".

* The eponymous character of [[Ray Stevens]]' "Mr. Businessman."

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[http://misspentyouthgame.com/ Misspent Youth]'' by Robert Bohl, if the group creates a Corporate villain, then it will no doubt include corrupt and rotten [[CE Os]]. It's a game where you play bomb-throwing anarchist teenagers who are out to upend a Dystopia that has it out for them personally.

** Technically, anyone not in the know shouldn't realize Pentex even exists as an entity; it should just look like a bunch of shady but independent companies that are all in each others' pockets.

* ''[[Orpheus]]'', also from the [[Old World of Darkness]], has a number of standout examples among the ghost-tech corporations: the drug-manufacturing head of Terrel & Squib, the ex-blood diamond baron that leads the mercenaries of Next World, and even {{spoiler|the unethical experimenting of the founders of Orpheus itself}}.

* ''[[Cyberpunk 2020]]'' has the character class "Corporate". While you are not ''required'' to be corrupt, is there really any fun in role playing a normal executive?

* The various corporations and megacorporations that run much of the show in ''[[Shadowrun]]''.

* The Chrysalis Corporation in ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'' takes it to a whole new level, insofar as their Director is actually ''Nyarlathotep''. Don't think anyone else is gonna be toppin' ''that'' one any time soon.

* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' in its [[Cloak and Dagger]] lore has a lot of big traders and merchant cabals ranging from unscrupulous to [[The Mafia|mafia]]-like to fiendish (quite literally).

* The board of directors of General Products in ''[[The Solid Gold Cadillac]]'', composed of four stuffed shirts named T. John Blessington, Alfred Metcalfe, Warren Gillie and Clifford Snell.

* Friedrich Dürrenmatt's dark comedy, ''[[Frank The Fifth]]'' is about a bank which is owned and operated by solely such people. The bank uses all kinds of illegal methods, and routinely has customers and even employees murdered.

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Act of War]]'''s Consortium is a bunch of corrupt business executives who use terrorism as an excuse to jack up oil prices, and also happen to finance several terrorist organisations.

* ''[[Army of Two]]'' combines this trope with [[Private Military Contractors]] in the form of {{spoiler|the heroes' own military corporation, SSC, whose leadership is plotting to privatize the United States military so they can take over the country.}}

** It is worth noting that (being a [[Dungeons and Dragons]] game set in the [[Forgotten Realms]]) the Iron Throne is invoked as being a largely [[Lawful Evil]] organization in-universe.

** Kirk Cage runs a ruthless mining group called the Cage Consortium in the ''[[City of Villains]]'' that works its miners to death- causing said miners to rebel, with [[Charles Atlas Superpower|strength gained from sheer force of will]].

* ''[[Critical Depth]]'' has both Dana Nagel, CEO of Mondred Corp, who plans to use the mysterious [[Plot Coupon|Pods]] to exploit for profit, and Sebastion Titan, head of Titan Industries, whose plans border on downright [[Take Over the World|world domination]].

* Arius of ''[[Devil May Cry]] 2'' , who seeks and wields demonic power for world domination while publicly the head of the international Uroboros corporation.

* The Shinra Electric Power Company in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', with the exception of Reeve. Shinra's main industry in the game seems more "World Domination" than "Electric Power". Or "Weapons Manufacturer" before even that.

* Adrian Ripburger in adventure game ''[[Full Throttle]]'' is another example of a villainous ''vice''-exec with a benign superior. Since he murders said superior and takes his place relatively early in the game, however, the distinction is probably moot.

* The Korx in ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'' are the literal embodiment of this stereotype -- the government and the whole planet are run by one company. So when you play as their leader, technically you are a CEO. Ironically the system works well: everything they have is capital and hence valueable (although they are max evil). Unfortunately their neighbors are externalities...

* In the ''Civ''-clone ''[[Call To Power]]'' series, one of the government models you discover in the Modern Age is the Corporate Republic, where corporations assume the role of government agencies. So once again, if you're evil and head the main business in charge of the government...

* The Glukkons in the ''[[Oddworld]]'' game series are similar to the aforementioned Druuge -- an entire species of out-of-control capitalists. Their lives revolve around harvesting the animals on their planet, processing them, and selling them as snack food. By the time of the first game, ''Abe's Oddyssee'', they've driven one race into extinction (the Meeches) and the others are rare. Thus, they turn on their slave race, the Mudokons, and [[I'm a Humanitarian|attempt to turn them into their next product]]. In the second game, ''Abe's Exoddus'', they've taken to making a soft drink from Mudokon ''bones and tears''.

* Mitsuko Isurugi from ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation 2'' is able to plan with all sides except for the Einst, simply because all sides know that she will only look out for herself, and wants the war to continue so she can profit off of it. The only reason she doesn't work for the Einst is because they're [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] and she can't make money off of them.

* ExoGeni Corp is in charge of the colony on Feros where {{spoiler|1=it conducts experiments on the colonists, allowing the telepathic Thorian creature to exercise its control over them so its researchers can observe the effects. After Shepard's intervention, ExoGeni attempts to wipe out the entire colony.}} Later in the game, ExoGeni employees' experiments with Thorian creepers lead to disaster after the Feros mission when the creatures go berserk and kill most of them. The last surviving researcher attempts to bribe Shepard to prevent her arrest.

{{quote| "Tell your assassin to aim for the head... 'cause she doesn't have a heart."}}

** Miranda Lawson's [[Archnemesis Dad]] is one of the wealthiest businessmen in the entire galaxy, but his role in the actual story is more that of a [[Mad Scientist]].

* The Umbrella Corporation in ''[[Resident Evil]]''. Notably, when the government finally had evidence of Umbrella's misdeeds in the [[Time Skip]] before ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'', they destroyed the company by freezing their business practices, crashing their stock price and driving them into bankruptcy - it doesn't matter how powerful a corporation you are, if you can't do business, you die.

** And {{spoiler|the shadowy Other Corporation Albert Wesker works for. And the Raccoon City Police Department. And most of the S.T.A.R.S management. And really any organisation in the Resident Evil games.}}

* The entire Zaibatsu Corporation in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] 2''.

* ''[[Persona 3]]'' has Tanaka, whose Social Link is The Devil and spends his time with the player talking about doing shady business (but not before making the protagonist pay him as an "investment"), though his interactions with the [[Messianic Archetype|Main Character]] will encourage him to consider philanthropic work, if only for the purpose of having the people he may potentially help owe him.

* ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' and ''[[Red Faction]]'' had the Ultor corporation. Doing anything to earn a buck off Stillwater's middle and wealthy classes, they will not hesitate to exploit workers, start gang wars and bring in heavily armed men to protect investments.

* Adrian DeWinter and the executives of [[Private Military Contractors|Artemis Global Security]] in ''[[Tom Clancy]]'s H.A.W.X''. After getting contract with Brazil to fight Las Trinidas and fought a battle to defend Rio, the US intervened, making the stocks drop, so after a while, DeWinter accepts deal from Las Trinidas (because [[Evil Pays Better|it pays better]]) and launched an all-out assault on USA, trying to assassinate the president, disabling country's missile defence system, and trying to nuke the country.

* Were it not for Edward Diego trying to cover up his corrupt antics, [[System Shock|SHODAN]] would have just sat and quietly run Citadel Station.

** {{spoiler|The CEO of Altru Corp. in ''[[Pokémon Ranger]]: Shadows of Almia'' is also the head of Team Dim Sun. The two are nigh-completely parallel - just replace "oil power" with "Pokémon power". Similarly, in ''XD'', Mr. Verich is an obscenely rich man bribing the sailors of Gateon Port, and is likely the man who made a load of Poké through the mines under Pyrite Town. Given he's the man in charge of Cipher, doesn't it make more sense that he'd finance the construction of Realgam Tower, which served as Evice/Es Cade's base of operations in ''Colosseum''?}}

* Ayano of ''[[Ar Tonelico]]'' is introduced as one of these, as the head of the villainous Tenba Corporation. {{spoiler|It turns out she's ''not'', and everything bad about the company is actually Bourd's fault. Once he's out of the way, she makes sure it's reformed.}}

* Chief Blank from ''[[Space Channel 5]]'' is a loon who'll do anything to get high ratings, including brainwash the masses.

* Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima from the ''[[Tekken]]'' series probably count. Jinpachi was a benevolent CEO, but Heihachi quickly corrupted it, and Kazuya was even worse (e.g. smuggling endangered animals, which brought Jun Kazama into the picture).

* In ''[[Spore]]'', a player can evolve their species into one of these by sticking in the middle path (getting either three or all blue cards) as the Trader archetype, which the game defines "... are in it for the profit; their allegiance is to the almighty sporebuck". This idea really can be played out, in which a trader empire will generally have lowered prices for all general purchases and colony tools, as well as to have the cash infusion super power (which doesn't have a penalty with local empires), which simply allows the progress bar for a system's trade to fill up instantly, allowing you to buyout the planet if you have the cash. Factor it in with the ability to farm spice and the fact that only [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|zealot]] and [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|warrior]] type empires (as well as the [[Big Bad|the Grox]]) are your only sworn enemies, you can literally take over a large chunk of the galaxy just through simple exploration and trade and never even have to fight until you're strong enough to do so. And they say money doesn't talk...

* Dravis of the [[Mega Corp]] PTMC in the ''[[Descent]]'' series.

* Uncle Richard from ''[[Modnation Racers]]''.

* The recent "King of the Dwarves" quest of ''[[Runescape]]'' has the dwarves think the Consortium is that. The ultimate reason for that is the death of two miners in a cave-in, {{spoiler|as the Consortium's forces, the Black Guard, was too busy saving the machines damaged in the same terrorism-based explosion to help them.}} The trope isn't played straight - {{spoiler|the decision was necessary to avoid further disasters caused by the city's power supply being destroyed.}} This doesn't help with preventing all the civil unrest.

* Armstech and its president Kenneth Baker from the first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''.

* Henry Leland, Chief of Development of ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'''s Halbech, inc. His character design and voice job appears to have been custom-tailored to make him look and sound as much as a corporate sleazebag as humanly possible, to say nothing of [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking|his smoking habits]].

== [[Visual Novels]] ==

** And Kane Bullard in Case 3-2 ... except he's kinda dead before you meet him. He was one of these before hand though. I'll pinkyswear!

** ''Ace Attorney Investigations'' has {{spoiler|Ernest Amano, part of [[Big Bad|Quercus Alba]]'s smuggling ring, and a doting father [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|who tried to use his vast fortune to stop the police from finding evidence to convict his son Lance]] (who was indeed the guilty party).}}

* Pretty much every member of [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Hereti Corp]] in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is one of these. Their company goal ''is'' world domination, after all.

** And now there's brutal industrialist Crustro and [[Mad Scientist]] Dr. Nofun, of their own corporations.

* Anyone that works for FOX in ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' but particularly Ansem and Vexen. They secured the rights to ''[[Watchmen]]'' '''just''' to remind people of how evil they are.

* Any member of Tera Corp from ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'' almost certainly qualifies. However, it is worth noting that they have had a good amount of infighting. It would seem that one [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] is not loyal to any other one.

* The RIAA in ''[[Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger]]''..... who are basically the real life RIAA, [[Up to Eleven|drawn out to their logical conclusion.]] They were so avaricious that they took to scanning dying people's brains on the grounds that their ''memories'' contained copyrighted materials. It did not end well for them.

* ''[[Vexxarr]]'' used "[http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=121905 Is this the same Sony that..?]" query for [[Even Evil Has Standards]] joke.

* Mr Bunny, the Hoppy Computer Guy, Dark Lord of Microsoft [[Expy]] Ubersoft in ''[[Help Desk]]'', along with his doubles at SCO and the RIAA. Being evil is what Ubersoft is ''about''. That's why they've never had more than one help desk employee authorized to actually help people at any time (and he quit).

== Web Original ==

* ''[[The Onion]]'': "[http://www.theonion.com/articles/layoffs-are-necessary-if-we-want-to-keep-the-light,26250/ 'Layoffs Are Necessary If We Want To Keep The Lights On,' Says CEO Halfway Through Tasting Menu]"

* The Hasbro Guy from the sequel to ''[[Three in The Afternoon]]'', who's behind convincing Lucas and his corporations to mass-produce and sell lightsabers.

* In ''[[Arcana Magi]]'', Oryn Zentharis, Vyndor, and The Board of Directors of Avalon Tech Enterprises want to use the Sentinels to dominate the economy and control the world.

== Western Animation ==

** The script for the episode referred to him as "Steve Castle."

** Hoggish Greedly was of the slovenly [[Corrupt Hick]] type. He didn't seem show outright malice for the environment, he usually just didn't care about it, and his motives were centered in obtaining vast amounts of money and resources as fast as possible. He also [[Pet the Dog|was a loving family man]].

** Sly Sludge was a corrupt exec who focused on waste disposal (that is, dumping absurd amounts of toxic waste and garbage where-the-hell-ever), and was sleazy and sneaky. He often ran operations that would shrink garbage or compact it or incinerate it, but they either were fake or they backfired severely.

** About 50% of Dr. Blight's evil schemes revolved around making herself famous, rich or preferably both, including more than once when she teams up with one of the above characters for some malignant corporate venture. She usually supplies the hyper-advanced tech they need to do their thing. The other 50%, on the other hand, were pretty much messing up the environment for the heck of it.

** The revival had Ronald Rump, a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] parody of famed industrialist Donald Trump, who teamed up with the [[Big Bad]] Catatonians to further his business empire.

** His name is Ronaldo Rump. He has a cousin named Sir Richard Brand Something.

** Mercy Graves takes over LexCorp when Luthor is outed as a criminal in ''[[Justice League]]'', and manages to bring it back into solvency by being not ''quite'' as corrupt as Luthor (or possibly just less maniacal).

** Ferris Boyle (also from Batman) is one of these as well; being responsible for turning Victor Fries into Mr. Freeze and supposedly killing his wife, Nora. Bonus for being voiced by [[Mark Hamill]], before he became The Joker.

** Grant Walker (again from Batman), who blackmails Mr. Freeze into trying to make him immortal.

** Maxie Zeus (Batman again) is also depicted as a corporate executive who... well... [[Sanity Slippage|went a little nuts]] after his stock crashed. The reason he became insane was because his success in crime made him think he was untouchable and godlike.

** Subverted by Jerrica 'Jem' Benton herself.

** Milton Midas on the other hand, is a much more straight example, as his actions of disposing toxic waste cause an entire lake to become contaminated.

*** Although Russ Cargill is not so much corrupt, as his ultimate evil goal is to do his job. He's just slightly insane about the means to that end. Also the end.

* HP, the Head Pixie from ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]''. He's voiced by Ben Stein (as are the other pixies) and has got to be ''the most boring creature'' in Fairyworld.

** On Earth, we have Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome, who engages in Robber Baron behavior when plot dictates.

*** He's not really that corrupt, [[It Makes Sense in Context|he just doesn't give a darn...]]

** Somewhat subverted, as there is actually a greater evil out there, The Tribunal. Ofdensen's just preventing them from killing Dethklok.

** James Grishnack, producer of Dethklok's movie Blood Ocean in Season 1, has a fitting line for this trope: "I've been fucking over celebrities since you were all shitting in diapers!"

''I'd rather you be dead than consider not opening a restaurant''<br />

''I'd rather you be dead'' }}

{{quote| '''Powell:''' There's no room for sentiment in business.}}

** This series version of Tombstone also is one.

** Much more recently is a evil, sadistic, foul-mouthed Mickey Mouse in the [[Jonas Brothers]] episode who plays this trope straight.

** That was mostly so he could sue people referring to one of his other products as a "baby death trap", presumably under the guise of trademark protection (since the original product was probably too dangerous for a libel suit to hold up in court).

* Averted on ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]''. The large company Inventco is responsible for mass-producing the [[AI Is a Crapshoot|evil robotic hats]] which end up [[Bad Future|enslaving humanity in one alternate timeline]], but it's strongly implied they had no idea that this would happen. The real villain is actually the original hat itself. Otherwise, Inventco does nothing but positive things, sponsoring school science fairs and giving aspiring inventors a chance to make it big.

** The series also introduced a villain named Douglas Fir, whose character is similar to Garkos.

** Also in that series, when Napper Thompson's uncle died and left his fortune to him on the condition Napper never plays soccer again, Napper became the target of two villains who wanted to get the inheritance. One of the villains was the uncle's former business partner. {{spoiler|Napper lost the inheritance but fortunately it was revealed neither villain was the appointed next heir.}}

* {{spoiler|Miles Axlerod}}, the ''real'' [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Cars|Cars 2]]''.

* Magnacat in ''[[Monster Allergy]]'' appears as this in his human persona.

* ''[[Teamo Supremo]]'''s Will 2 Wynn.

* David Xanatos from [[Gargoyles]]. He is, however, [[Affably Evil]] and a loving family man so he's not as extreme as most examples.

* Ed Wuncler from ''[[The Boondocks]]''.

* Dr. Robotnik in ''[[Adventures Of Sonic The Hegdehog]]''.