CONFERENCE SPEAKER: from Conference Chairwomen Dawn McCarty, M.CJ, MBA-Cy (Jolly), and Dr Alyse Price-Tobler PhD UniSC Price-Tobler, PhD UniSC?: We are pleased to introduce Marti Mongiello to the stage as our end-of-day Keynote Speaker on October 10th, at 2:40 PM EST. A panel will meet and present after that. Marti is a former White House Master Chef and US Navy veteran with a 30-year retired certificate. As a Chef, Marti has enjoyed a 55-year career to date. As a Presidential historian, Marti also managed the most exclusive resort in world history atop the Catoctin Mountain chain of Camp David and has been a classic restaurateur and hotelier his entire life, living and managing trillions of dollars in American assets by living in Asia and Europe for many years.
Marti is a true thriver speaking today as a chef about being threatened by his mother to be put into an oven as an infant and then abandoned around the age of four, not to see her again until the age of 45.
During this 41-year period, Marti enlisted in the American Navy and became a nuclear submariner, traveling to the North Pole, working at the DMZ in Korea, and deploying five times into the deserts for Operation Southern Watch, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom.
As a THRIVER SPEAKING, Marti grew up in a violent household, being whipped and often beaten by nuns in grade school, where boys could be punched in the face by a teacher in front of the class. After school, Catholic fist-fights were the norm, and so was gang activity as a lieutenant in a gang. Going to jail at 17 or getting tattoos, drinking beer during school lunch hours, or getting high to return to classes should shock many, and Marti, as a disgrace in his family, was ejected on his ass out of the US Air Force before he could even leave for boot camp at Lackland, TX.
Luckily, as God intervened in this criminal's life, Marti would be had by the US Navy with multiple waivers in his federal record with one of the highest Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores in history - a 95. He was immediately offered nuclear school, tested for the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB), and provided nuclear or cryptologic schools. He infuriated his recruiter when requesting cookery school - the love of his heart.
Despite Marti's upbringing and childhood, he worked by the nuclear briefcase in the Orange One Nuclear Bunker with a Top Secret clearance. He continues to serve Hollywood glitterati like Nicholas Cage, Sophia Loren, Jon Bon Jovi, and leaders like six American Presidents, the Presidents of Italy, Argentina, and Greece, Prime Minister Hashimoto of Japan, and his and her Royal Majesties of the Royal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, King Abdullah and Queen Rania as well as the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI.?
Marti is thriving today and striving to show that he will not be a product of his past. He was knighted in Belgium in 2000 and is a former President of the Rotary Club of Global Impact.