David Miscavige

David Miscavige (born April 30, 1960) is the second and current leader of the Church of Scientology.

His official title within the organization is Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that controls the trademarks and copyrights of Dianetics and Scientology.

He is also referred to within the Scientology organization as "DM", "C.O.B."

or "Captain of the Sea Org".

Miscavige was a deputy to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard as a teenager.

He joined the Sea Org, a management group for the Scientology organization, then later joined the Commodore's Messenger Organization, a group within the Sea Org that carried Hubbard's orders to subordinates.

David Miscavige was born in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, on April 30, 1960.

His parents, Ronald Thomas “Ron” Miscavige Sr. and Loretta Gidaro, were Catholics of Polish-Italian heritage.

Miscavige and his twin sister, Denise, were raised primarily in Willingboro Township, New Jersey.

As a child, Miscavige played baseball and football, but he suffered from asthma and severe allergies.

His father, a trumpet player, became interested in Scientology and sent the younger Miscavige to see a Scientologist.

According to both father and son, a 45-minute Dianetics session cured Miscavige's ailments.

In the late 1970s, after the public relations disaster of the criminal convictions of eleven leaders of the Guardian's Office, including Hubbard's own wife Mary Sue, Hubbard had to maintain his distance from Church management since he had formally resigned in 1966.

Hubbard further distanced himself from the Guardian's Office, his wife, and CMO—which stood for Commodore Messengers Org where "Commodore" had been Hubbard's title as leader of the Sea Org.

Miscavige's family joined the Church of Scientology in 1971 and eventually moved to the organization's world headquarters at Saint Hill Manor in West Sussex, England.

Saint Hill served as Miscavige's training ground as an auditor, and he is remembered by the Scientology organization as a "12-year-old prodigy" who became its youngest professional auditor.

The family returned to Philadelphia within a few years, where Miscavige attended Marple Newtown High School.

In 1976, with his father's permission, Miscavige left high school on his sixteenth birthday and moved to Clearwater, Florida, to join the Sea Org, a Scientologist organization established in 1968 by founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Some of his earliest jobs in the Sea Org included delivering telexes, groundskeeping, food service and taking photographs for Scientology brochures.

Miscavige was appointed to an elite group of young Scientologists within the Sea Org called the Commodore's Messenger Organization (CMO), which Hubbard had established to carry out his personal errands and deliver executive directives to Scientology management.

As they grew into adolescence, the Messengers' power and influence within the Sea Org increased.

By 1977, Miscavige was living in La Quinta, California, and working directly under Hubbard as a cameraman for Scientology training films at CMO Cine Org.

In April 1979, the Watchdog Committee was formed, consisting of the senior executives of CMO Int, with Miscavige assuming a prominent role.

He rose to a leadership position by the early-1980s and was named "Chairman of the Board" of RTC in 1987, the year after Hubbard's death.

Official Church of Scientology biographies describe Miscavige as "the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion".

Since he assumed his leadership position, there have been a number of allegations made against Miscavige.

These include claims of human trafficking, child abuse, slavery, forced separation of family members, coercive fundraising practices, harassment of journalists and Scientology critics, and emotional and physical abuse of subordinates by Miscavige.

Miscavige and spokespersons for the Scientology organization deny the majority of these claims, often making derogatory comments and dead agenting (attacking the credibility of) those who bring them.

Miscavige has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation due to allegations of criminal activities within the Scientology organization.

He is named as a defendant in numerous lawsuits involving his role in the organization.

One such recent lawsuit, filed in April 2022, refers to repeated sexual assault of children by senior Scientology executives in the Sea Org during Miscavige's leadership.

The case also involves allegations of human trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of child abuse.

When Hubbard went into hiding with Pat and Annie Broeker in 1980, Miscavige became the sole link between Hubbard and church leaders, secretly relaying Hubbard's orders from the Broekers.

In early 1981, Miscavige set up the All Clear Unit "which was allegedly designed to work towards a situation when Hubbard could come back on lines"; to be "All Clear" for Hubbard to emerge from hiding.

By the end of 1981, Miscavige was in charge of both the Watchdog Committee and the All Clear Unit, as well as Author Services Inc., a for-profit entity established in 1981 to manage Hubbard's literary and financial affairs.

As head of the CMO, Miscavige was responsible for sending out teams to investigate problem areas within Scientology.

Next, setting his sights on dismantling the larger and more powerful Guardian's Office, Miscavige strong-armed Hubbard's wife Mary Sue to resign from her post as Guardians' controller, removed several other GO officials, and purged several more through Comm Evs including David Gaiman, Duke Snider, Mo Budlong and Henning Heldt.

The St. Petersburg Times later reported: "During two heated encounters, Miscavige persuaded Mary Sue Hubbard to resign. Together they composed a letter to Scientologists confirming her decision – all without ever talking to L. Ron Hubbard."

She subsequently changed her mind, believing that she had been tricked.

Despite this, Miscavige claims he and Mary Sue remained friends thereafter.