Tom Adam,
Technically, Triple Canopy is a descendent of Blackwater, via a series of name changes and mergers. The family tree is spelled out in a Foreign Policy Magazine article linked in the story.
But you can find the corporate history elsewhere quite easily via Google.
Blackwater rebranded initially as Xe Services and later in 2011 Xe was rebranded as Academi, which in 2014 merged with Triple Canopy and the whole ball of wax became part of Constellis Holdings Inc.
Think Russian nesting dolls.
I covered it in 2014 because one of the board members of Constellis Holding was Red McCombs, from San Antonio, where I was doing reporting at the time. He also was at one time the owner of the Minnesota Vikings, in case you’re ever in a trivia game. Former AG John Ashcroft also was on the board at the time as well.
From the FP story — which uses the word “descendant” as well:
Blackwater is no more. But its descendants live on — and they’re still raking in government money. The company whose name is synonymous with some of the worst excesses of the Iraq war — and which earned more than $1 billion protecting U.S. facilities and personnel during the conflict — is back in the news because of an explosive New York Times story revealing that one of its top officials in Baghdad threatened to kill a State Department auditor who raised questions about its lucrative contracts.
The steady government work has made ACADEMI, like Blackwater before it, attractive to outside investors. In early June, ACADEMI joined forces with rival private security company Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings, adding even more distance (and name changes) between it and the original Blackwater.
Triple Canopy is one of several private security companies hired by the State Department to protect its embassies and consulates around the world. It had a particularly good year in 2012, when it received more than $200 million in contracts for security of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The next year it received $5 million more to protect the U.S. Consulate in Basra in Iraq. By merging, ACADEMI and Triple Canopy will have over 6,000 employees, shrinking competition in the U.S. market and highlighting the increasing consolidation of what had once been a freewheeling industry.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwaters-descendants-are-doing-just-fine/
2014 Press Release:
“Constellis Holdings’ Board of Directors includes: Red McCombs (Chairman), former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, former White House Chief Counsel Jack Quinn, Admiral Bobby Inman (Ret.), Russ Robinson, Jason DeYonker, Dean Bosacki and Triple Canopy co-founder Tom Katis.“The combined ownership group will employ more than 6,000 of the industry’s most experienced and best-trained employees and will be led by CEO Craig Nixon.”
https://www.academi.com/news_room/press_releases/95
So, there you have it. The family tree of descendants.
