Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/August 14, 2008

Shu Mai was a female Gossam native to the planet Castell, who served as the Presidente of the Commerce Guild prior to and during the Clone Wars. She was one of millions of Gossam devastated during the economic depression on her homeworld dozens of years before the rise of the Empire, and after they were saved from their hardship by the Commerce Guild, Mai gained a position as Chief of Property Resources for the Guild, and was eventually promoted several more times. Using shrewd and sometimes unscrupulous tactics, Mai eventually brought the Gossam out of their financial troubles, before repurchasing Castell&mdash;only so she could raise rent even more and demand tribute from her people. Impressed with her entrepreneurial nature and shrewd business awareness, the Commerce Guild then elected her as their Presidente.

Mai then secretly aligned the Guild with the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a group of powerful individuals who had broken away from the Galactic Republic. Mai pledged the Guild's forces to the CIS during the Clone Wars that followed, and served on the Separatist Council alongside such others as Nute Gunray, Wat Tambor and San Hill. At the close of the war in 19 BBY, Mai was among the Council members executed by Darth Vader on the planet Mustafar.

Shu Mai was known to use various unscrupulous methods to get her way, though she was always careful not to tie herself to such acts, and to remain within the letter of the law at all times. She was extremely greedy, and cared for little other than herself&mdash;she would happily have killed off most of the population of Felucia, one of the Gossam's colony planets, rather than let it fall to the Republic. Her ultimate desire lay in power, and, most of all, money.