Insull, Samuel (1859-1938)

English-born US public utilities executive. By 1889 Insull was vice-president of Edison General Electric Company in Schenectedy, New York, in 1892 he became president of Chicago Edison Company, and by 1907 all of Chicago's electricity was being generated by Insull's Commonwealth Edison Company, a tribute to his economic management. He pioneered in unifying rural electrification and also in supplying gas. His vast empire of utility companies, which had been financed by the sale of stock, collapsed with the stock market crash in 1929.

Born in London, he was a bookkeeper for one of Thomas Edison's agents in England, and he went to the USA in 1881 to be Edison's personal secretary. In 1932, after his companies collapsed, he fled to Greece but he was forced to return to Chicago in 1934. He was tried on mail fraud, bankruptcy, and embezzlement charges but was acquitted. Some felt he had been made the scapegoat for the whole stock market debacle. He was reduced to living off modest pensions during his final years in Europe.