Jeff Gum

USN SEAL

Jeff grew up in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and attended University of Central Florida majoring in Business Management/ Entrepreneurship.  In July 2007 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy to attend Basic Underwater Demolition/ SEAL (BUDS) training in Coronado, California.

After two years of SEAL training he graduated from Class 272 and checked into SEAL Team Five. After his first deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, he was selected for the Navy SEAL Breacher and Sniper Schools and worked with the Secret Service on a POTUS mission for a month in Hawaii.

His second deployment took him to the United Arab Emirates with the Crisis Response Element, and upon returning home he began teaching Combatives and Prisoner Handling to SEAL trainees.  As the Lead Petty Officer, Jeff helped develop the Combatives Instructor Course to train SEALs how to lead Combatives training for their platoons. He also traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark for two weeks to help the Danish Frogmen stand up their own Combatives program.

In 2015, he began his transition out of the Navy by participating in The Honor Foundation’s 120 hours of Executive Education at UCSD Rady School of Management.  The program inspired him to launch his own swimwear line partnering with 2-time ESPY award-winning adaptive athlete, Kyle Maynard, called Sunga Life.

The company is focused on achieving double bottom line goals of purpose and profitability, where 10% of profits go to veteran charities — specifically those that benefit wounded and amputee Special Operations Forces. Jeff transitioned out of the Navy in June 2017, traveled the world for a year, and is now attending the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a focus on Entrepreneurship.