Simon Stagg

"Without people like me, Gotham, this country, it would grind to a halt. Hypocrites, every last one of you."

- Stagg's deluded words to Batman at GCPD lockup.

A wealthy scientist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, Simon Stagg was the founder and CEO of Stagg Enterprises, a company that specialized in advanced biomedical research. A self-proclaimed visionary, Stagg developed clean energy solutions and a revolutionary airborne inoculation technology on his airship laboratories. In recent years, Stagg Enterprises was accused of human rights violations in regards to medical testing on humans. Stagg vehemently denied the accusations, and his company was cleared of all charges.

Before Arkham Knight Incident
At the inauguration event for the Gotham Reborn Project Bruce Wayne was trying to talk business with Simon, but Simon was more interested in setting his daughter, Sapphire, up on a date with Bruce. Sapphire apologized for his behavior and quickly began telling her father off. When a bunch of armed assailants attacked the event, Simon was approached by one of the men who tried to slice him with a large blade. Bruce Wayne intervened, attacking the assailant and giving Stagg the chance to run, with Stagg noting that this was twice that he owed Bruce already.

Stagg bought some mud from an antiques dealer that came from Clayface and gave it to the R&D department of Stagg Enterprises to develop weapons for a project called Project Meta. At some point, Penguin found out about the venture and ordered Deadshot to investigate. Deadshot, acting under Amanda Waller's orders teamed up with Batman to infiltrate the Stagg Industries facility, uncovering a wealth of illegal activity that was brought into the light.

Stagg founded Stagg Enterprises with Dr. Alex Sartorius, with the intention of helping people. However, Stagg eventually decided to illegally sell some of their pharmaceuticals as bioweapons and do unethical research, which eventually caused Dr. Sartorious to have grave misgivings in those actions and planned to expose his former friend. However, Stagg deduced that Sartorious was going to expose his illegal activities, and proceeded to use Fear Toxin on him for his tests.

A month after Batman and Deadshot's investigation into Stagg's R&D department Bruce conducted a meeting with Stagg upon one of his airships. There Bruce informed him that Wayne Industries was pulling out its investment from Stagg's company, in light of the issues that surrounded Batman and Deadshot's investigation that attracted attention from the law. As Bruce left, Stagg ordered a female employee to contact Crane and tell him that he wished to meet with the criminal. Stagg then made a deal with Scarecrow, hoping to use his Fear Toxin for profit, and even supplied his Nimbus Tech to the Arkham Knight's Militia, but then discovered that Scarecrow wasn't even interested in making a profit. Stagg betrayed Crane, deciding to use the technology for medical advancement and profit.

Arkham Knight Incident
Scarecrow did not take this betrayal lightly, and so then attempted to punish his former partner. Batman took down the Militia who were interrogating Stagg about the Cloudburst. Shortly after being rescued, Stagg was recaptured by Scarecrow's Militia, due to Batman temporarily succumbing to his Joker Infection. Batman then attempted to find out what the Cloudburst was supposed to be, and Stagg lied about its functions. Stagg was then placed in a cell with Fear Toxin about to be released by Scarecrow. Batman, having already learned about the Cloudburst's true nature, then tried to find out more. Stagg was exposed by the Fear Toxin in the cell, although Batman ultimately knocked him out using the Batclaw.

After Batman and the Militia had left the airship, Stagg regained consciousness and managed to free himself. Stagg then activated several security measures to ensure that neither the Arkham Knight's Militia nor Batman could reach him, especially when the former, after activating the Cloudburst, planned to throw him from one of the airships. After he dispatched the Militia, and searched for Stagg, Batman set his cowl to track his handprints and found Stagg hiding underneath a floor grate in the lab floor. Batman proceeded to interrogate Stagg, demanded a solution to destroying the Cloudburst, and threatened to hold him responsible for every person that Scarecrow had killed. Stagg then explained how to bypass the Cloudburst's abilities with Nimbus Tech. Batman then trapped him in a cage, with Stagg getting fearful because the test subject chimpanzees (who were on psychotropic medication) may maul him when it came to feeding time due to not being fed in days, which was when the door cells were unlocked. Presumably, the GCPD managed to get Stagg out of the cell before feeding time and placed him in a holding cell.

Stagg was later seen in GCPD Lockup wondering why he was arrested and arrogantly thought he was going to be acquitted in a few days.

Personality
Simon Stagg was a selfish and amoral coward, a man who would do anything to satisfy his insatiable lust for material wealth. As evidenced by the research notes on his airship, Stagg was a ruthless businessman, who experimented on humans (though he attempted to justify this by claiming that no one would miss them) to perfect Scarecrow's Fear Toxin and showed no remorse for the failures who died. Stagg's greed had no limits as he believed he could turn Crane's toxin into a cure for depression and experimented with humans to try and prove it. This process was responsible for the murder of many test subjects.

Stagg was indifferent to the well being or safety of others, demonstrated as he created the Cloudburst for Scarecrow, knowing fully well what it was capable of and never told anyone, he also knew that it would result in the deaths of millions, and later double-crossed him for his Fear Toxin as he saw it as a potential cure for depression and planned on leaving Gotham City prior to Scarecrow's return without telling anyone about Crane's plans. Stagg uses his considerable wealth, minor influence and his own stabilizing effect on the economy due to his riches to justify his immoral actions. Stagg refuses to find fault within himself, though he had committed human experimentation which is beyond illegal, he still believes he was a victim in the situation where he had previously been shocked to find himself being arrested from his airship, claiming he thought he was about to be rescued instead. Batman even commented himself at the GCPD Lockup because of this: "You're even more deluded than I thought, Stagg."

Stagg also has an ego as well, believing Batman can't stop him because he has too much money. This applied to everyone else as well as Stagg believed he could actually get away with anything and do whatever he wanted due to his considerable wealth and no one could stop him and view himself as better then others. Furthermore, Stagg is completely oblivious to the fact he did anything wrong and believes he is genuinely innocent.

Stagg may have also been paranoid, as he was implied to have tried to have a microbiologist employee named Robert Kincaid assassinated via an outdated hunting rifle due to his possessing knowledge on research that was controversial, though it was never verified, the only hint at it being true being a bullet lodged into the latter's upper right arm.

Quotes

 * "I've got so much money not even Batman will be able to stop us."
 * Without people like me, Gotham, this country, it would grind to a halt. Hypocrites, every last one of you."
 * "I had to laugh when I saw the WayneTech donation earlier. You would be wise to ask yourself how much of a part that man has played in this."

Trivia

 * Stagg was one of only two major villains at the GCPD Lockup to not actually be arrested/brought to the GCPD by Batman, the only other being the Mad Hatter (who had deliberately let himself get arrested after he abducted three police officers and rigged their cars upon stealing them to draw Batman out). Batman even noted that by saying: "You made it" upon finding him in the maximum security holding cell.
 * If Batman visited Stagg after the former was outed as Bruce Wayne by Scarecrow, Stagg threatened to liquidate Wayne Enterprises' assets as revenge when he got out, although considering Aaron Cash's GCPD Lockup Evidence Room recording for Stagg that commented that Stagg Enterprises would "have more confiscated after tonight," that may not be a likely possibility as Stagg would likely have been charged as an accomplice of Scarecrow as he built the Cloudburst and knowingly worked with him.
 * Judging by his dialogue in the cell after being exposed to Scarecrow's Fear toxin, Stagg likely suffers from Arachnophobia.