Tim Ballard is the Founder of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) and Sr. Advisor to The SPEAR Fund. In 2013, Ballard and a team of former government operatives left their careers to go about the work of saving children as a private foundation, Operation Underground Railroad. He is also a board member of The Nazarene Fund, which seeks to save oppressed religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East.

Ballard spent over a decade working as a Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security where he was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and deployed as an undercover operative for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. He has worked every type of case imaginable in the fight to dismantle child trafficking rings.

Ballard has worked undercover in the U.S. and in multiple foreign countries to successfully dismantle dozens of child sex trafficking organizations and rescue countless children from slavery and exploitation. He is an expert at managing Internet investigations, particularly those dealing with file-share networks where pedophiles and traffickers go to trade child sexual abuse material. He has trained hundreds of law enforcement officers and has testified before the United States Congress on best practices to liberate children from sex slavery.

After serving a church mission to Chile, Ballard graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Spanish and Political Science from Brigham Young University. He went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude with an MA in International Politics from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He resides in California with his wife and children.