Ballard earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering and currently serves as the Fire Suppression Technology Manager for Victaulic. In his current role, he leads a team of product development engineers responsible for multiple fire suppression markets. Ballard has more than 22 years within the fire protection industry having spent the last 15 years with a focus in the special hazards industry. Ballard is listed as the inventor or co-inventor on 7 patents for products within the fire protection industry. Bob is a member of the SFPE and ICC organizations and technical committee member with the FSSA association as well a technical committee member on NFPA committees such as, 75 Standard for the Fire Protection of Information Technology Equipment, 318 Standard for the Protection of Semiconductor Fabrication Facilities, 750 Water Mist Fire Protection Systems, and 770 Standard on Hybrid (Water and Inert Gas) Fire Extinguishing Systems.