Erik Prince Erik Dean Prince ( born June 6 , 1969 ) is an American businessman and former U . S . Navy SEAL , best known for founding the world ' s largest private military company , Blackwater USA , in 1997 . He served as its CEO until 2009 and later as chairman until Blackwater Worldwide was sold in 2010 to a group of investors . Prince currently lives in the United Arab Emirates . Early life and education . Prince was born on June 6 , 1969 , in Holland , Michigan to Edgar D . Prince and Elsa Broekhuizen , the youngest of four children . Both his parents share Dutch heritage ( the family name , Prins , was at some point anglicized to Prince ) . He graduated from Holland Christian High School . Prince and his father toured the world together , visiting the German concentration camp Dachau , a divided Berlin , and Normandy . According to his mother , these trips " made a big impression " on the young Prince . Prince was accepted into the United States Naval Academy and attended it for three semesters before leaving , citing that he loved the Navy but disliked the Academy . He went on to receive his B . A . in economics from Hillsdale College in 1992 . During his time at Hillsdale , Prince served as a volunteer firefighter and as a cold - water diver for the Hillsdale County Sheriff ' s Department . Prince eventually became an emergency medical technician . In 1990 , Prince secured a low - level intern in the White House under George H . W . Bush , He was ciritical of a number of that administration ' s policies to the " Grand Rapids Press " , saying : " I saw a lot of things I didn ' t agree with — homosexual groups being invited in , the budget agreement , the Clean Air Act , those kinds of bills . He soon left to intern for California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher , President Ronald Reagan ' s former speechwriter . Rohrabacher described Prince as " a bright , driven young man . " At the age of 21 , Prince volunteered to search for a mass grave in Nicaragua , to expose killings under president Daniel Ortega and later claimed in an interview in Men ' s Journal that he found " . . . a mass grave : bones sticking out of the ground , hands tied with wire at the wrists . " . After Hillsdale College , Prince was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy via Officer Candidate School in 1992 . He went on to become a Navy SEAL and deployed with SEAL Team 8 to Haiti , the Middle East , and the Balkans . He credits the SEALs for being an outlet for his entrepreneurial spirit . Prince ended his U . S . Navy service prematurely in 1995 when his father died . Prince ' s mother sold the Prince Corporation for $ 1 . 3 billion in cash to Johnson Controls . He moved to Virginia Beach and personally financed the formation of Blackwater Worldwide in 1997 . He bought of the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina and set up a school for special operations . The name " Blackwater " comes from the peat - colored bogs in which the school is located . Career . Prince credits the Rwandan genocide with his decision to start Blackwater . He told an audience in his native Holland , Michigan , " It really bothered me . It made me realize you can ' t sit back and pontificate . You have to act . " Since 1997 , the firm has been awarded more than $ 1 . 6 billion in unclassified federal contracts and an unknown amount of classified work . It became the largest of the State Department ' s three private security companies , providing 987 guards for embassies and bases abroad . Since 2001 , the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) has awarded up to $ 600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates . The Barack Obama administration awarded the company a $ 120 million United States Department of State security contract and about $ 100 million in new CIA work in 2010 . Prince takes great pride in the work Blackwater has done and points to its successes . According to him , out of 40 , 000 personal security missions , only 200 involved guards discharging their weapons . " No one under our care was ever killed or injured . We kept them safe , all the while we had 30 of our men killed . " Prince , according to Robert Young Pelton reportedly thinks of Blackwater ' s relationship to the military as something similar to FedEx ' s relationship to the U . S . Post Office " an efficient , privatized solution to sclerotic and wasteful government bureaucracy . " He credits his father ' s competitive streak in the automotive business with the inspiration to design a lighter , faster army . In recent years Blackwater has come under criticism , but Prince believes that much of this criticism stems from politics . " I put myself and my company at the CIA ' s disposal for some very risky missions , " Prince told " Vanity Fair " for its January 2010 issue . " But when it became politically expedient to do so , someone threw me under the bus . " Prince resigned as CEO of Blackwater on March 2 , 2009 and remained as chairman of the board until he sold the company in late 2010 to a group of investors . Disclosure as part of a covert CIA task force . Prince was part of a secret CIA task force created to kill terrorists . The House intelligence congressional committee leaked his name to the press . Prince compared himself to the target of the similar government leak of Valerie Plame : " Valerie Plame ’ s identity was compromised for political reasons . A special prosecutor [ was even ] appointed . Well , what happened to me was worse . People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it . " Blackwater controversies . Prince ' s company , Blackwater Worldwide , was involved in several international controversies during 2007 , leading to his being asked to testify before the United States Congress . Seventeen Iraqi civilians were killed when a Blackwater private security detail ( PSD ) escorted a convoy of US State Department vehicles en route to a meeting in western Baghdad with United States Agency for International Development officials on September 16 , 2007 . On September 22 , 2007 , Federal prosecutors announced an investigation into whether Blackwater employees illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that were later possibly transferred to the Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK ) , a Kurdish nationalist group designated a terrorist organization by the US , North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union . Congressional investigation . On October 2 , 2007 Prince was subject to a congressional hearing conducted by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform following the controversy related to Blackwater ' s conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan . Public relations powerhouse Burson - Marsteller was brought in briefly , but at a critical moment , to help Prince , prepare for the Oct 2 hearing . Later work . In January 2011 , the Associated Press reported that Prince had taken on a new role training a force of 2000 Somalis for anti - piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden . The program is reportedly funded by several Arab countries , including the United Arab Emirates and backed by the United States . Prince ' s spokesman , Mark Corallo , said that Prince has " no financial role " in the project and declined to answer any questions about Prince ' s involvement . The Somali force will also reportedly pursue an Islamist supporting warlord . The Associated Press quotes John Burnett of Maritime Underwater Security Consultants as saying " There are 34 nations with naval assets trying to stop piracy and it can only be stopped on land . With Prince ' s background and rather illustrious reputation , I think it ' s quite possible that it might work . " Prince is serving as an advisor to Chinese investors in Africa . He created an investment fund of $ 100 million for this purpose . Personal life . Family . Prince ' s father , Edgar D . Prince , began Prince Machine Corporation , an automobile supply company , in 1965 . The business " exploded " and Prince began to invest some of the profits , through the Prince Group , into shopping malls and other types of car parts , creating a network of companies and real estate worth a billion dollars . In the early 1970s , Edgar Prince ' s company patented a sun visor that could light up and sold 5 , 000 to General Motors . When the company was sold in the 90s , the company produced 20 , 000 a day . In 1995 , after the death of his father , Erik assumed control of daily operations , which was eventually sold for $ 1 . 35 billion in 1996 . Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos , a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and wife of former Alticor ( Amway ) president and Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos . Prince has seven children . His wife , Joan , died of cancer in June 2003 . His youngest , Charles Donovan , was named after William " Wild Bill " Donovan . Philanthropy and political views . Prince describes himself as a libertarian and practicing Roman Catholic . He describes his political views as follows : " I ' m a very free market guy . I ' m not a huge believer that government provides a whole lot of solutions . Some think that government can solve society ' s problems . I tend to think private charities and private organizations are better solutions . " Prince credits his time as a White House intern with some of his views . He said that " Having that White House internship responsibility and badges , I walked around some of these other cavernous federal agencies , and you want to talk about depressing ? Walk through HHS or HUD or Commerce , you name it . Leviathan realized . " Prince serves as vice president of the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation , which his family founded . Prince has donated heavily to both Christian and Islamic causes , building mosques at Blackwater ' s overseas bases , and supporting a Muslim orphanage in Afghanistan . He financed the film " The Stoning of Soraya M " . " Salon " reports that " between July 2003 and July 2006 , the foundation gave at least $ 670 , 000 to the Family Research Council and $ 531 , 000 to Focus on the Family , " headed by James Dobson . The foundation is a major donor to Calvin College , a Christian institution in Grand Rapids , Michigan . Between 1998 and 2007 , Prince donated over $ 200 , 000 to Republican and third - party causes . In 2006 Prince contributed money to the Green Party of Luzerne County , Pennsylvania . Prince has been an advocate of a leaner , more efficient military . He suggests several ways to make the military more efficient without compromising security . His suggestions are : greater accountability of costs , using appropriate equipment for each job , reduction of overhead , and operational and procurement reform . In a televised interview with Charlie Rose , Prince discussed his offer to George Clooney of sending a humanitarian mission to Darfur . Prince expressed disdain over international inaction in the face of the Rwandan genocide :