Xe Services LLC is a private military company founded as Blackwater USA in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.
In October 2007, the company was renamed Blackwater Worldwide and was colloquially referred to as "Blackwater". Blackwater has a wide array of business divisions, subsidiaries, and spin-off corporations but the organization as a whole has courted much controversy.
Based in the U.S. state of North Carolina, Xe operates a tactical training facility (36°27?N 76°12?W? / ?36.45°N 76.2°W? / 36.45; -76.2) which the company claims is the world's largest, and at which the company trains more than 40,000 people a year, mostly from U.S. or foreign military and police services. The training consists of military offensive and defensive operations, as well as smaller scale personal security.
The company announced on February 13, 2009, that it would operate under the new name "Xe". In a memo sent to employees, President Gary Jackson wrote that the new name "reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security." A spokesman for the company stated that it feels the Blackwater name is too closely associated with the company's work in Iraq.Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said there was no meaning in the new name, which the company spent over a year to arrive at in an internal search.
The company is still under contract with the State Department and some Xe personnel will likely remain in Iraq at least until September 2009.
