A US-Finn joint national and technically no longer a CEO, Linus Torvalds, known as Linux's "benevolent dictator for life," returned to oversee his Open Source project this week following a self-imposed break to "get some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately." Torvalds, who has a reputation for being rude to other members of the community, said at the time he wanted to address his "flippant" actions and proclivity for personal attacks.
His story is one that most boardrooms in the US will have seen at some point in time. Enron, BP, Goldman Sachs, Philip Morris. Fraud, tax evasion, toxic dumping, safety violations, bid rigging and overbilling.
About 3 percent of CEOs assessed in a management study scored in the psychopath range. In the general population its just above 1 percent. These are not primary psychopaths like Jeffrey Daumer, but powerful people who've allowed their biologically inherited empathy traits to dry up.