Al Clark (Blackwater)

Al Clark, along with Erik Prince, was the founder of the private security firm Blackwater.

Clark and Prince created Blackwater in 1997 as a business for assuming some of the roles once played by the public sector military, most notably providing security for American and British officials in the Iraq war.

As a Navy SEAL firearms instructor, Clark grew dissatisfied with the fact that the Navy did not own firing ranges, and instead had to borrow time on Marine or Army ranges or rent facilities that were highly inadequate for serving the Navy’s needs. With the idea of creating a “one-stop shopping” private training facility, Clark’s concept simply lacked the financial backing, until he realized that one of his SEAL trainees (Erik Prince) was a man with similar ideas but far greater financial resources.

He found a similar opportunity at Strategic Tactical Services where a wealthy investor backed Clark's idea which was lost with his departure from Blackwater. He was co-founder at STS, however, like Blackwater he left after a short period of time.

He started his own company but has never been able to duplicate the success that once was Blackwater.