Stanton Dowd

Stanton Dowd is a member of the Council of Five, which led the Illuminati prior to the Majestic 12 coup in 2034. He is also the leader of the contemporary Knights Templar which controls the world's banks.

2029
Born into a New York old money family with Illuminati ties for generations, Dowd was a natural candidate for advancement within the ranks of the secret cabal. The Dowds made their fortune by controlling shipping and banking, and Stanton was no exception. By 2029, Stanton Dowd was a member of the Council of Five and one of the world's shipping magnates, with a fleet of ships and significant stakes in banking worldwide. He captured the eye of one of Task Force 29 analysts due to a string of investments in South Africa, which did not include diamonds, making him the only shipping magnate in the world not involved in the diamond trade. This stuck out like a sore thumb against a background of typical old money investments, like high-tech, computer, and medical industries. The preliminary investigation also suggested that his birth certificate and passport may have been forged.

During his tenure at the Illuminati Council of Five, Dowd's banking ties made him responsible for exercising financial pressure to aid the Illuminati in achieving their goals. He was based in New York City, and is said to never leave the city. As directed by Lucius DeBeers, he worked with Volkard Rand to ensure the Human Restoration Act passed. Dowd also plotted to gain full access to the Palisade Bank Corporation Blade servers in Prague, by manipulating Ashani Talwar and Masaaki Oshiro using evidence of insider trading: Both Talwar and Oshiro freely used data securely stored on Blade servers to make targeted investments, and have even ordered the death of whistleblower Simona Saridakis. Although Dowd appeared to be blackmailing them noth, Oshiro, Palisade's CTO, was in fact willingly working with him.

Oshiro merely put on an act for his wife, Ashani Talwar, in order to convince her to agree to Dowd's request. Dowd's risky game had an immense potential pay-off: Full access to all of Palisade Blade servers, giving the Illuminati discretionary access to the secrets of other super-rich and megacorporations. If achieved, it would be something unprecedented, at least until the activation of Daedalus and Bob Page's Aquinas.

2050s
The decades after the Aug Incident and especially Page's coup, establishing Majestic 12, were not kind to the Dowd family. Page's aggressive and often violent business practices allowed him to dominate multiple markets, including shipping. Over two decades, the Dowds were forced to liquidate a significant part of their assets to remain afloat. Although still obscenely rich by any means (especially against the destitute millions of mid-century United States), Dowd does not possess the influence or riches necessary to challenge Page, at least directly. What he does have is a tremendous amount of knowledge and information - especially on the history of the Illuminati, global commerce, and technical specifications of his greatest ships, such as the PRCS Wall Cloud, seized by Page and used to transport the Gray Death.

By 2052, Dowd is isolated from his fellow Illuminati members, including friends like Elizabeth DuClare. Page's dominance over the network makes any kind of communications risky, while the increasingly hostile domestic situation forced Dowd to go into hiding in a series of safehouses - including the Dowd family crypt in Lower East Side Cemetery. To make matters worse, Dowd came down with the plague shortly before meeting JC Denton.

Missions

 * Deus Ex 7th Mission: Hell's Kitchen (Third Visit) The PRCS Wall Cloud is used by Majestic 12 to transport the Gray Death virus from Hong Kong to the United States. As the previous owner of the superfreighter, this brings Dowd to the attention of Tracer Tong, who also finds Illuminati "fingerprints" in the molecular structure of the Gray Death virus. Tong instructs JC Denton to contact Dowd in the hope that he can provide information on who created the virus. Before Dowd will agree to help him, JC must gain his trust. To this end, JC follows out Dowd's instructions to scuttle the Wall Cloud before the Gray Death has been unloaded.
 * Dowd himself has contracted the Gray Death and is suffering from its effects. He asks JC to acquire a vial of Ambrosia for him to treat the disease. Once JC has sunk the Wall Cloud, Dowd offers all the information he can provide on the Gray Death virus. He reveals that Morgan Everett and Bob Page's "signatures" can be found on it, but that it is Page who is responsible for using it as a weapon.

Behind the scenes

 * According to the Deus Ex Bible, "Stanton Dowd" is not his real name. However he can be found in the Dowd family crypt in New York, suggesting that at least his surname is real.
 * During Illuminati conferences in Deus Ex: Icarus Effect and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, one member of the meetings is located in New York. As most other Council of Five members are present, it is likely that this person is Stanton Dowd.