The Shin-Ra Electric Power Company
(Shin-Ra, Japanese approx. "New Evil")

Since the great war which devastated the planet, the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company (originally a weapons manufacturing company) rose to become the most powerful conglomerate in the world.

Led by President Shin-Ra, the company controls the people by providing them safety in exchange for buying their products and asking no questions.

The Shin-Ra have discovered the secret of mining life force, and have begun sucking life itself from the planet.

The Corporation is made up of several departments:

Palmer

A lazy, incompetent man put in charge of the under funded space exploration program.

Scarlet

A ruthless woman in charge of weapons development.

Heidegger

Officially the security chief... but unofficially in charge of all military operations by the Shin-Ra army.  Heidegger is responsible for the safety of not only the corporation and its president, but also for the smooth running of all operations undertaken by its military wing.

Professor Hojo

Described by Sephiroth as "a walking mass of complexes", Hojo is the self contained, brooding scientist given the task of continuing the Jenova project after the death of Professor Gast.

Reeve

The man responsible for the construction of the mega city Midgar.  He has serious doubts about the Shin-Ra and its motives... and has questioned President Shin-Ra on more than one occassion.