Blackwater Founder Steps Down as CEO

RALEIGH, N.C. —  Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater who used an auto parts inheritance to build the security firm into one of the world's most respected — and reviled — defense companies in the world, said Monday he has stepped aside as chief executive.

Prince appointed a new president and chief operating officer in a management shake-up he said was part of the company's "continued reorganization and self-improvement." It comes just a couple weeks after changing its name to Xe, pronounced like the letter "z," in an effort to repair its severely tarnished name and reputation.