Lieutenant General (Retired) Mark Hertling served thirty-eight years in the US Army as a tanker and cavalryman, serving at every level from tank platoon leader on the East-West German border to commander of the US Army, Europe (USAREUR) and the Seventh Army. During his combat tours, Mark served as a major in a cavalry squadron during Desert Storm; as an assistant division commander in the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad in 2003-2004; and later as the commander of the 1st Armored Division, Multinational Division North, and Task Force Iron in Northern Iraq in 2007-2008. His final posting was as commander of USAREUR, where he prepared US and allied countries for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan and helped transformed the armies of Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Poland, and several others. After retiring from the army, Mark became a senior vice president for a major health care organization. While there, he also designed and executed an award-winning leadership program, training thousands of health care professionals to improve leadership in that industry. He is the author of Growing Physician Leaders , an Amazon bestseller in the health care genre. Mark was appointed to the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition and was later appointed by the president to the American Battle Monuments Commission, where he served as chairman. Mark was an adjunct scholar at West Point's Modern War Institute, was a member of the Dean's Alliance at Indiana University's School of Public Health, and now serves as professor of practice in strategic leadership at the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College.

He is an active public speaker on leadership, national security issues, and health care. From 2014 to 2024, Mark appeared as a military and national security analyst for CNN/CNN International. Today, he is a freelance analyst and writes extensively on national security and leadership for a variety of media outlets. His book If I Don't Return will be released in 2026, offering reflections of life, leadership, and military service based on a journal he wrote to his young sons during Desert Storm. A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, Mark holds master's degrees from Indiana University, the School of Advanced Military Studies, and the National War College. In 2019, he earned a doctor of business administration from the Crummer Graduate School of Business, defending a mixed-methods research study on leadership. Mark is married to his best friend, Sue. They have two sons, five grandsons, and two granddaughters.