Andrew Mellon — Banking, Aluminum, Treasury Secretary

**Andrew W. Mellon** was the quiet power behind the Gilded Age and the man who shaped American tax policy for a century. Born in 1855 in Pittsburgh to a prominent banking family (his father Thomas Mellon founded T. Mellon & Sons bank), Andrew was trained from childhood in the discipline of capital allocation — evaluating businesses, assessing management, and deploying capital where the returns were highest. He took over the family bank in his twenties and spent the next four decades building it into one of the most powerful financial institutions in America, while simultaneously building personal stakes in aluminum (Alcoa), oil (Gulf Oil), steel, and dozens of other industries.