ARMY OFFICER
Founder / CEO Beyond The Trek
Chad F.
Ballestrazze
Education & Credentials
M.A., Organizational Leadership,
Brandman University, 2021
B.A., Diplomacy & Military Studies,
Hawaii Pacific University, 2017
Pinehurst, NC
Chad Ballestrazze is an Active-Duty Army Officer with 16.5 years of service in both Conventional and Special Operations Formations. Chad entered the U.S. Army in 2007 as a Cavalry Scout and served until his selection into the Special Operations Civil Affairs branch in 2013. In 2017 he was selected for the Army’s Green to Gold Program and commissioned in 2019 from the University of Hawaii and went on to serve at Joint Base Lewis McChord WA. In 2021 Chad was selected to return to Special Operations and currently serves within the United States Special Operations Command at Fort Liberty, NC. His service includes 4 Combat tours, and 1 Rotational Deployment in support of Security Operations within the PACOM AOR.
He is the founder and CEO of Beyond the Trek, an organization that focuses on creating better generational Americans with lessons learned from leadership in Combat and self-development in the United States Army.
Growing up with deaf parents had an everlasting impact on how Chad sought personal and professional development. Chad was raised in an environment where individuals limited their potential due to what they thought could not be accomplished due to personal disabilities. This led some in his family to fall into addiction because they felt as if they were not good enough to achieve their life’s dreams. Always being told that you were not able to do certain things because of where you came from, and seeing that it was just a limiting factor of the mind is where Beyond The Trek was born.
Through multiple Combat deployments and leading individuals from the lowest level to a strategic platform, there was always something in common, and it was if individuals developed their personal lives, their professional lives were more productive. Chad is a father, youth soccer/football coach, community leader, and an advocate for change.
Beyond The Trek seeks to develop individuals on a personal level, so they become the person who is a leader to themselves and those that depend on them.
Chad has been married to Tawny Ballestrazze for 15 years and they have two children Bristol (9) and Branson (7).