Cofer Black, Former Blackwater Vice Chairman and CIA Counterterrorism Chief, Joins Burisma Board

Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company, announced the appointment of Joseph Cofer Black to its board of directors on February 15, 2017, less than one month after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. Black, the former vice chairman of Blackwater (the private military contractor founded by Erik Prince), brought extensive intelligence and security credentials to a company already under scrutiny for political connections and corruption allegations. Black served as director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center during the September 11 attacks and later as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism under President George W. Bush.

Black joined Burisma while Hunter Biden still served on the company’s board (Biden had joined in April 2014 and would remain until May 2019). Burisma President Nikolay Zlochevskyi invited Black to focus on “strategic development and security issues to expand Burisma’s global opportunities.” Black had previously served as Special Adviser on foreign policy for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, adding to the bipartisan network of American political figures connected to the Ukrainian energy company.

The appointment represented a strategic move by Burisma to enhance its international legitimacy through recruitment of prominent American intelligence and security figures. Black’s background in counterterrorism and private military contracting through Blackwater, combined with his political connections across Republican administrations and campaigns, provided Burisma with access to elite American national security networks. His connection to Erik Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos would serve as Trump’s Education Secretary, created additional intersections between Burisma, American intelligence community figures, and the incoming Trump administration.

The timing of Black’s appointment—immediately following Trump’s inauguration and during the period when Ukraine policy would become a central focus of Trump administration foreign policy—raised questions about the revolving door between intelligence services, private military contracting, and foreign corporate boards. Black’s presence on Burisma’s board alongside Hunter Biden would later feature in Republican attacks on Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign, though critics rarely mentioned Black’s simultaneous service or his connections to Republican political figures and the Blackwater network.