Ferris Boyle was the CEO of GothCorp, and was reputed to be a humanitarian. In reality, however, Boyle was a stone-cold, unethical sociopath, whose 'legitimate projects' were actually a front to cover up his illegal and dangerous weapons manufacturing operations, which came to fruition through a combination of extortion, embezzlement, abduction, and even murder.
History
Cold, Cold, Heart
Ferris Boyle secretly conducted research into highly illegal and dangerous cryogenic weaponry, and kept most of his staff out of the loop. Eventually, he learned that one of GothCorp's scientists, Dr. Victor Fries, had successfully managed to place his dying wife, Nora Fries, into cryostasis, was intrigued by that, and offered him a deal: Fries would work on his cryogenic weapons program, and in exchange, Ferris would supply him with funding to finding a cure for the terminal illness Huntington's Chorea, which Nora was afflicted with.
Fries, desperate to save his wife, agreed to the deal. However, Boyle had absolutely no intention of actually fulfilling his end of the bargain and was far more interested in using Nora as a test subject in order to discover and research additional cryogenic techniques to apply to his projects and ultimately weaponize her condition. Fries, upon discovering Boyle's true objectives, decided to take matters into his own hands, and secretly conducted his research on the cure. Boyle eventually discovered that, had Fries brought to the lab, confiscated Nora's capsule, and had him beaten.
When Fries fought back and punched Boyle, the infuriated CEO pistol-whipped the scientist and knocked him into a prototype Cryogenic Cannon, which fired and caused an explosion that froze one of the security guards, killing him, and trapped the second guard and Fries in the room. As the fumes engulfed the room, Boyle quickly fled and left his staff for dead, neglecting to retrieve his gun, which was knocked from his hand during the explosion, and had the area quarantined. While Boyle knew he would eventually have to fabricate a story to conceal the truth of his crimes to the police, the accident was kept out of the news and public's eyes, allowing Boyle to continue in his weapons program and use Nora as a test subject.
Some time later, on New Years Eve, Boyle was presented with the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the Wayne Foundation, with Bruce Wayne even believing that he would be a good hope for Gotham City. However, the ceremony was interrupted with the arrival of Mr. Freeze, alongside the Penguin's henchmen, who intended to abduct Boyle so that they could use his security clearance to access, what they thought would be cryogenic weapons, but was actually Nora's capsule, so that Freeze could transport her away from GothCorp to develop a cure and obtain his revenge on his former employer in the process. Upon Boyle's capture, he was then dragged over to the Propellant Research Wing at GothCorp and taken hostage when Batman tried to rescue him. Freeze ordered Boyle to supply him with the security codes for Nora. When Boyle refused, Freeze threatened to freeze him so that he could experience Nora's fate.
Batman eventually caught up with Freeze, and informed him that he knew the truth about what Boyle did to him (having investigated the quarantined lab earlier while searching for components for a cryodrill to access the lab). Boyle tried to falsely state that it was an accident, with Freeze going berserk and throwing him into a cryogenic capsule. After Freeze was defeated by Batman, Boyle revealed his true nature and proceeded to "thank" Batman for doing the heavy lifting and aimed a cryogenic Jetstream at Freeze, with Batman getting in the way of it. Boyle then revealed his intention to leave Batman for dead to silence him of his discovery.
Boyle then sadistically beat a pleading Freeze with a piece of pipe that he tore from his suit and taunted him that he's going to let him live long enough to watch Nora die. Batman managed to free himself due to the XE Suit and beat Boyle into unconsciousness, and also told him to "take a seat" in disgust for the "humanitarian." Because of evidence supplied by Batman regarding Boyle's crime, he was arrested alongside Freeze and Penguin as mentioned in the credits by Vicki Vale on GNN.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
Boyle would eventually be convicted of man-slaughter and sentenced to Blackgate Prison, while his assets were frozen and he was forced out of GothCorp, with the remaining board members trying to disassociate themselves from their founder as much as possible. As a result, GothCorp's stocks would plummet over the next few months, while Simon Stagg propositioned a buyout of the company, which was implied to eventually be successful. In the end, Boyle's crimes cost him his wealth, company, reputation and freedom, spending his remaining years behind bars and using what little funds he had left to pay protection money to his fellow inmates in exchange for surviving in the brutal prison.
Batman: Arkham City
Boyle was referenced via one of Riddler's challenges ("Who can Boyle and Freeze at the same time") and by Mr. Freeze's in his interviews with Hugo Strange.
Trivia
- Batman's final words to Boyle after he knocked him out in the ending: "Take a seat, Humanitarian," were a paraphrase of Batman's final words to Ferris Boyle in "Heart of Ice", "Good night, Humanitarian."