Erik Prince
| Erik Prince | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Erik Dean Prince June 6, 1969 Holland, Michigan, United States |
| Residence |
Middleburg, Virginia, United States Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
U.S. Naval Academy Hillsdale College (B.A.) |
| Known for | Founder of Blackwater USA |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 7; 4 from his first marriage and 3 from his second |
| Parent(s) | Edgar D. Prince and Elsa Prince-Broekhuizen |
| Relatives | Betsy DeVos (sister) |
Erik Dean Prince (born June 6, 1969) is an American businessman and former U.S. Navy SEAL officer best known for founding the government services and security company Blackwater USA. 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 heads the private equity firm Frontier Resource Group and is chairman of Hong Kong-listed Frontier Services Group Ltd. He lives in both Middleburg, Virginia and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Prince was born on June 6, 1969 in Holland, Michigan, the son of Edgar D. Prince and his wife, Elsa (Zwiep), and the youngest of four children. The family name, "Prins", was at some point anglicized to "Prince", and Prince is of Dutch ancestry on both sides of his family. He graduated from Holland Christian High School.
Prince's father had started as a salesman making 40 cents an hour, who founded a die cast machine manufacturing firm, Prince Machine Corporation, in 1965, which became a supplier to the automobile manufacturing industry and eventually a billion-dollar company; As business "exploded" Prince began to invest some of the profit through the Prince Group into other types of car parts and shopping malls, 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. In the '90s, the company produced 20,000 a day. 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.
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