Tyunaul Seituoda
Tyunaul Seituoda was a corporate raider and financier in the period just prior to the Gallente-Caldari War. Born into the wealthy and politically connected Seituoda family in AD 23107, he built one of the largest fortunes in the Federation by buying small companies through hostile takeovers, stripping them of any parts he found to be dead weight, and reassembling them into larger, more efficient corporations under his ownership.
Early Years
Though the Seituoda family was not quite among the megacorporate elite, it was still a powerful one on Caldari Prime; Tyunaul's father was a Federation Senator from 23110 AD until his death in 23132 AD, his uncle the CEO of the State and Region Bank for nearly twenty years, and a number of his aunts and uncles held various other executive positions in a number of megacorporations and the Caldari Prime planetary government. He attended the University of Caille, graduating with a degree in finance, and went to work for the State and Region Bank in 23127 AD. There, he gained a reputation as a financial wunderkind, and in 23138 AD, he struck out on his own.
Convinced that his family deserved to be of even higher status than it already was, Tyunaul Seituoda set out to seize control of a controlling stake in one of the dozen or so megacorporations that exerted the true control over Caldari Prime. Using expertise honed at the State and Region Bank, where he had shepherded many acquisitions and mergers over the years, he launched a series of hostile takeovers of smaller companies to build his wealth and broaden his experience both in management as well as takeover strategies. By the time he was 40 years old, Seituoda had become one of the wealthiest men on Caldari Prime, but his efforts to gain a significant share of one of the megacorporations had made little headway. The megacorporations guarded their stock jealously, and he found himself dealing with their efforts to counter him more and more often. Though his political connections made it difficult for the megacorporations to completely suppress him, their constantly-growing power made even his attempts at Federation government involvement often fall short. Ironically, the fact that his attempts to manipulate the Federation government into assisting him didn't work eventually made him grow increasingly dissatisfied with Gallente Prime, and by 23146 AD, Seituoda was a significant backer of a number of Caldari independence groups.
On a more personal note, Tyunaul Seituoda married Kymmi Parovuja in 23144 AD; the daughter of shipping magnate Kuruta Parovuja, the two met at a business conference on Gallente Prime the previous year. While all indications are that the two had quite a happy marriage, the initial reason for the relationship was business for Seituoda; the marriage secured him a controlling share in Parovuja's interests, which would later go on to become one of the foundations of the Wiyrkomi empire. Kymmi Parovuja largely stayed out of the business world, instead becoming known for her philanthropy, especially for wounded veterans, and leaving the rest to her husband.
Wiyrkomi Buyout
In 23149 AD, Seituoda was approached by Taaiko Wiyrkomi, CEO of Wiyrkomi Industrial Machinery, a medium sized manufacturing conglomerate in the Luminaire system, which was fighting off a takeover attempt by the Pairuhaara megacorporation. Wiyrkomi was looking for a white knight to bail his struggling firm out of the situation, and did not trust the other megacorporations, assuming he would quickly find himself simply serving a different master. Seituoda, having butted heads with Pairuhaara in the past, was more than willing to step in, and became a major stockholder in Wiyrkomi almost overnight. He also convinced the State and Region Bank to also throw its weight behind Wiyrkomi, shutting Pairuhaara out of the market.
While Wiyrkomi had fended off one takeover attempt, he soon found that Seituoda had plans of his own for the company, helped by the fact that he now controlled almost 15% of the company's stock himself and exerted a great deal of control over the 8% that the State and Region Bank had acquired. Though he seemed content to let Wiyrkomi keep his CEO position, Seituoda held the chairman of the board position tightly, and moved the company towards an aggressive acquisition strategy, coinciding nicely with the economic warfare the megacorporations were unleashing on the Federation at the time. At first, Seituoda faced serious resistance on the board of directors to his moves, as Wiyrkomi had long held to a more conservative acquisition strategy. However, as his successes grew and shareholder profits rose, fewer and fewer shareholders doubted his acumen; even Taaiko Wiyrkomi, who resented the amount of influence Seituoda commanded over “his” company, grudgingly accepted the fact that the new direction seemed to be working well.
By 23153 AD, the newly rebranded Wiyrkomi Corporation was a growing second-tier corporation, and the company was consolidating its gains with a series of management buyouts. Seituoda had also had the corporation begin to buy out his personal holdings, using the stock and cash he acquired from the purchases to consolidate his position on the Wiyrkomi board. By the height of Gallente-Caldari tensions in the fall of 23154, Taaiko Wiyrkomi was largely a figurehead, with Seituoda and his family running the company behind the scenes.
Morning of Reasoning
The Morning of Reasoning was a watershed event not just for the Caldari people, but for the Seituoda family, especially Tyunaul Seituoda. When the six secessionist megacorporations bested the other megacorporate CEOs in the Tea Maker Ceremony, and began to parcel out the fallen corporations' assets amongst themselves, Seituoda took advantage of the turmoil. Already forewarned thanks to contacts in independence groups closely affiliated with the secessionist megacorporations, Wiyrkomi was one of the few second-tier corporations that managed to plunder the unionist megacorporations' holdings before the secessionists had devoured them whole. Then, as the State and Region Bank stumbled under the ensuing financial turmoil, Wiyrkomi's own financial assets were put to use, bailing it out and taking a controlling stake in the bank.
When the war broke out, Seituoda and Wiyrkomi were placed in an awkward position. While much of Wiyrkomi's assets were not actually on Caldari Prime, saving them from the ravages of the Gallente bombardment, they did have a great deal of assets in outer regions of the Federation, including a major operation in the Vlillirier system. As a result, Seituoda did not initially join the Caldari rebellion, despite his previous associations with independence groups. Instead, he orchestrated a series of spin-offs, selling off Wiyrkomi assets in the Federation to form ostensibly Gallente-owned subsidiaries, though Wiyrkomi retained its control through a complex web of holding corporations and personal loyalties. He also began to use the company's Federation assets to build up its holdings in the State, most of which were acquisitions made during the Morning of Reasoning. Meanwhile, the State and Region Bank became the organ through which his family grew closer to the Chief Executive Panel, securing his flank. Seituoda and Wiyrkomi did not officially defect to the State cause until 23161 AD, when they fled Federation space just ahead of a flurry of FIO arrest warrants.
Post-War
Seituoda and the rest of his family established themselves in the Dantumi system, where Wiyrkomi made its new headquarters, and set to work expanding its corporate empire. With no holdings in the central region of the Forge, the other megacorporations were content to let Wiyrkomi develop more in the Citadel and Lonetrek unimpeded. Thanks to generous funding from the State and Region Bank, Wiyrkomi quickly grew to rival the megacorporations under Seituoda, and its intelligence network within the Federation became a vital part of the Caldari war effort. Seituoda also funneled cash to other groups agitating independence from the Federation, including many Intaki.
In 23192 AD, Wiyrkomi's importance to the financial and military backbone of the Caldari State made it impossible for the Chief Executive Panel to continue to shut the company out of a direct role in leadership. While Seituoda had been pushing for his company's admission to the CEP since the mid 23170s and had generally found a welcome reception from Kaalakiota and Lai Dai, the other megacorporations had remained skeptical. After a particularly devastating campaign by the Federation in the Citadel, however, Sukuuvestaa was forced to come to the State and Region Bank for help; Seituoda's price was a seat on the CEP.
With Seituoda's goal of making his family one of the megacorporate elite successful, he seemed to lose some of his drive, and in 23195 AD, he handed over control of the Wiyrkomi board to his son Sekadama. He retired to his estate on Dantumi, acting as an advisor to the company and spending most of his time working with his wife's philanthropic organizations. Upon his death in 23219 AD, Tyunaul Seituoda was hailed as one of the founding fathers of the Caldari State, one of the few who had not been directly involved with the Morning of Reasoning. His shares of Wiyrkomi were placed in a family trust, which to this day maintains a strong hold on the board of the megacorporation, though they tend to leave the day-to-day operations of the corporation in the hands of others.
