Ellen Trieste

Ellen Trieste is the major power at Petrochem. She has the most shareholder votes, is chairman of the board, and wields the most influence over the other board members. On issues where she and Trenton Parker disagree, she and her sup-porters usually edge him in the vote by just a few percent age points. Ellen is not happy with this, and she is looking to expand her control over the corporation. She would be quite happy to see Trent Parker pushed out of the company completely, and she is working toward this goal.

Ellen was born in France in 1945, the daughter of a former resistance soldier and an American nurse. She dreamed of being an actress, and had a moderately successful film career as a sex diva in the mid and late 1960s. She never made it big in America, however, and she retired from acting in the mid 1970s. She had made a fair amount of money before the cameras, and decided to invest it. Her skills in money management far exceeded her skills as an actress, and within a few years she was sitting on top of a considerable fortune. In 1999 she made a sizable investment in the fortunes of the struggling Parker Petrochemicals. She has devoted herself to that project ever since, and now sits firmly at the helm of Petrochem. She has personal fortune valued at over eight billion Eurodollars.

Trieste has become more eccentric with age. As her health deteriorated, she became convinced that Earth's increasing pollution and population was to blame. She removed herself to the confines of space, setting up shop in a villa in the ESA Crystal Tower orbital, a project which she helped to bankroll. She lives in a sterile apartment,and exposes herself to other human beings only in emergencies.She interacts entirely through telecommunications or virtual reality.

As Trieste becomes older she spends more and more time in her custom virtual reality, a high definition, world-scale reproduction of an idealized post-war France. In her computer it is always just after VE day, and she is always the shining star returning to her homeland after a wartime exile in America. She is bathed perpetually in the computer-generated romance of movie stars and dashing young soldiers. Only business and necessary bodily functions interfere with her ongoing fantasy.Trieste is genuinely infatuated with Angus Youngblood. When the two rendezvous, he appears in the VR as her absentee love who has been valiantly fighting the Nazis and is now stationed in Germany.

At 75, Trieste is still mobile and relatively energetic, but she has a several chronic ailments and is definitely deteriorating. Her decay is accelerated by all the time her body spends immobile while her brain interacts with her VR via braindance. Within a couple of years she will require assistance to move or feed herself. When this happens, she plans to commit her brain entirely to the VR and conduct all her business from there. Her body will be entrusted to the care of robots and medical personnel.

Skills
Resources 10, Leadership 6, Seduction 5 (in VR form only), Social 10, Persuasion and Fast Talk 4,Perform 7, Accounting 7, Awareness/Notice 6,Education and General Knowledge 7, Petrochem Corp. 7, Expert Investor 9, Business 6, Stock Market 9, French (Native), English 7.

Cyberware
Basic Processor, Chipware Socket, Interface Plugs, Data Term Link, Biomonitoring System, Pain Editor, Enhanced Antibodies, Nano surgeons (aidmedical treatment), Basic Cyberoptic, Times Square Marquee.