Mark Divine

Mark Divine (born July 14, 1963) is an American author, podcaster, and retired Navy SEAL Commander. His military service spans 20 years (1989–2011) where he oversaw various missions around the world including Asia Pacific, Africa, Bahrain, and Iraq He retired at the rank of Commander in 2011.

Early life
Divine was born in Utica, New York and attended Colgate University (graduated 1985 with a degree in economics) while competing on the men's swim and crew teams. Upon graduation, Divine joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (then Coopers & Lybrand) as a senior consultant while working towards a Master in Business Administration at the New York University Stern School of Business (graduated 1989) to become a Certified Public Accountant. During the same time, Divine began a parallel journey into zen meditation and Seido karate under the training of Grandmaster Tadashi Nakamura, where he decided to change paths and pursue a career as a U.S. Navy SEAL Officer.

Active duty (1989–1996)
After commissioning in the United States Navy in November 1989 through Officer Candidate School, Divine reported to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training in 1990 and graduated as the Honor Man of Class 170 (#1 ranked trainee; 19 graduated out of 185 starting candidates). Following SEAL Qualification Training, Divine reported to SEAL Team THREE as an Assistant Platoon Commander and Platoon Commander. Following Team THREE, Divine served as the Operations Commander at SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE (SDVT-1) stationed in Hawaii.

Reserves (1997–2011)
Divine later led various special operation mission in support of SEAL Team THREE as the executive officer at Reserve SEAL Team THREE (1996–1999). Divine was then promoted to lieutenant commander and was mobilized from the Reserves to lead a Naval Special Warfare-wide initiative requested by the Department of Defense for a proof of concept deployment conjunction with SEAL Team ONE to study the proposal to bring the U.S. Embassy into Special Operations Command as a combatant command.

Divine was then contracted by Naval Special Warfare Group One to design and lead the final capstone certification exercises (CERTEX) for deploying SEAL squadrons. Later, Divine was hired by Naval Recruiting Command (NRC) to design and implement a nationwide mentoring program to increase the caliber of candidates entering the special operations pipeline. In his final years of service, Divine commanded Reserve SEAL Team THREE and Reserve SEAL Team ONE by serving as the Executive Officer overseeing various deployments and missions. He retired at the rank of Commander (CDR) in 2011 after 20 years of service.

Professional career
After transitioning to the Navy Reserves, Divine launched SEALFIT in 2007 to serve as an immersive academy to strengthen the caliber of SOF candidates entering the Special operations pipeline. He later founded Unbeatable, LLC in 2014 as a sister company to SEALFIT to bring leadership development to the civilian population using his five-mountain development training plan. Divine has authored numerous personal development and leadership books (such as Unbeatable Mind, The Way of the SEAL, Staring Down the Wolf) throughout his professional career. In addition, Divine launched the Courage Foundation in 2017 as a 501(c)(3) organization to increase awareness about veteran suicide by raising money through the completion of 22 million burpees (one million burpees for every veteran who commits suicide per day). Divine surpassed his goal on November 11, 2020.