John Steele was born near Carlisle in the North of England. He was a strong swimmer as a child and subsequently became one of only 200 serving Royal Naval Mine Clearance Divers at 17 years old.
Following his time in the Navy he went on to spend 22 years as a commercial diver offshore.
In 2004 he enrolled on various courses and became a private military contractor in Iraq. In 2007 he left and set up his own fishing charter business for one year. This would have continued however the Somalian anti-piracy industry was in its infancy but growing quickly. A few more courses were added and it was back to sea as a security operator...
A chance offer of a job in Nigeria as a security advisor was accepted in 2012 where John works to this day.
In his time off he has a gold mining operation to run 230km above the Arctic Circle in Northern Finland.