Interestingly ambiguous headline.... It's "the first of many from history" not "the very first ever identified" for others.

New research suggests the same personality traits associated with toxic corporate leaders today may have been present at the very birth of global capitalism 400 years ago.

The study, published in the Asian Journal of Business Ethics identifies Jeronimus Cornelisz, who was a merchant manager with the Dutch East India Company, as likely being the earliest documented example of a corporate psychopath.

How one with toxic personality can successfully climb the corpo ladder to the top ? Did the toxic personality rewards the corporation?