David Miscavige

David Miscavige married Michele Diane "Shelly" Miscavige, a fellow Sea Org member, in December 1982. She was one year younger to him and served Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, as a member of the CMO since she was 12.

After Miscavige assumed the position of the Chairman of the Board (COB) of Scientology's Religious Technology Center, his wife started serving as his official assistant. Apparently, she fell from grace after she allegedly filled several job vacancies without asking her husband.

Actress Leah Remini, a close friend of David's wife, filed a police report in August 2013 claiming that Michele has been missing since her last public appearance in 2007. According to some Sea Org members she was being kept captive at a church facility on Gilman Springs Road in San Jacinto, California. Church of Scientology arranged a meeting between Michele and the Los Angeles Police Department, following which the case was closed, but the police declined to answer further questions.

David Miscavige was born on April 30, 1960, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The youngest of Ron and Loretta Miscavige's four children, he was raised in Willingboro Township, New Jersey, in a Roman Catholic Polish-Italian family. His father was a trumpet player.

According to the family, David, who suffered from asthma and severe allergies as a child, was miraculously cured of his ailments during a 45-minute Dianetics session. Following this event, the family joined Scientology in 1971 and moved to Saint Hill Manor, England, the church's world headquarters.

David, who attended high school at Marple Newtown, returned to Philadelphia a few years later to complete school. However, with his father's permission, he left school after turning 16 and moved to Clearwater, Florida, to join the Sea Org, a religious order which controlled all Scientology management organizations.

Starting as a steward who ran errands, David Miscavige became a confidant of Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, in his late teenage days. In 1977, he started working directly under Hubbard and served as a cameraman for Scientology training films.

He later became a part of a group of young Scientologists called the Commodore's Messenger Organization (CMO), which was responsible for enforcing Hubbard's policies within the individual Scientology organizations. He became the head of the organization in 1979.

As Hubbard stopped appearing at public events of the church in 1980, David became the de facto leader of the organization. In 1981, he was given the responsibility to handle legal claims against Hubbard and started to manage Hubbard’s literary and financial affairs.

After Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organization, pleaded guilty of criminal conspiracy during Operation Snow White, David persuaded her to resign from the Guardian's Office. He also purged many other top officials through ethics proceedings.

In 1982, he founded Religious Technology Center (RTC) to control and oversee the use of all of the trademarks, symbols and texts of Scientology and Dianetics. He has retained the position of the organization's Chairman of the Board since 1986.

Following a decade-long delay, Miscavige finally completed one of his biggest projects, the Flag Building, on November 17, 2013. Its purpose is to deliver the Super Power Rundown, a high-level training course for Scientologists.