Directors
Tim Ferguson, Founder
Tim established the Adams Institute in 2020 to serve as the legal home of the Amendment, which he first conceived in 2019. Tim continued to refine the Amendment for the next 5 years, including through the drafting of more than 50 essays detailing its various features, until he christened it Operation Abigail in 2024, in honor of Abigail Adams. In advancing our efforts, Tim draws on his two decades of experience as a corporate attorney and student of history.
He holds a B.A. in Political Science from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and a J.D. from The University of North Carolina School of Law.
Advisors
John R. Taylor, Jr.
John is an expert on macroeconomics, finance, and historical and economic cycles. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Taylor Global Vision, a highly specialized firm focusing on global currency, rates, commodities and equity analysis and macro trade structuring and trading. Before that, he was Founder and Chairman of FX Concepts, at one time the largest foreign currency exchange hedge fund in the world, with $14 billion under management. FX Concepts was originally organized as a research and consulting firm, selling analysis to, and performing services for, major US corporations with a global presence (the firm’s first clients included Coca Cola, RJ Reynolds, Kodak, and Armstrong Cork) before moving to currency management in overlays (becoming the first firm to perform those activities) and in absolute return strategies.
John holds a PhD honoris causa from Franklin University Switzerland and is Trustee Emeritus, where he served as Chairman of the Board for 11 years, and in whose name The Taylor Institute was established in 2010. The mission of The Taylor Institute is to advance academic knowledge and generate innovations in business theory and practice, including competitiveness, collaborative practices, and sustainability. John is ABD (PhD), Political Science, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he had a NDEA Title IV fellowship and NIH support. At UNC, he lectured on European and French political systems and his studies focused on quantitative political science, including political statistics and public opinion. He also worked for ABC News on election forecasting. He went to work at Chemical Bank as their political analyst before completing his dissertation on the relationship between economic development and political development in Italy. John holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, where he studied European studies and civilization.
David Gore
David is a professor of rhetoric and public affairs, focused on history, political economy, and constitutional theory. He currently serves on the faculty of the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he was previously department head of the Communication Department. His teaching philosophy – which he applies across varied courses in public discourse, globalization, global political economy, self-awareness and the four cardinal virtues, and Enlightenment and Classical philosophy – centers upon the goal of enabling students to capably discuss public affairs, discharge their duties as responsible citizens, and live good and virtuous lives.
David holds a PhD in Rhetoric & Public Affairs from Texas A&M University, where his dissertation explored the rhetoric of economic arguments, especially arguments in favor of free markets and their relation to ethics and religion. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming.
Mike Ball
Mike is a retired Alabama legislator and public servant with a lifelong commitment to principled leadership and civic responsibility. He served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2002 to 2022 (as a Republican), where he authored Amendment No. 8 to the Alabama Constitution—an innovative reform that tied legislative pay to the state’s median household income. The amendment, passed by voters in 2012, exemplifies Mike’s belief that public servants should prosper only when the people do.
Before his legislative service, Mike served in the U.S. Marine Corps and spent over a decade as an Alabama State Trooper and investigator with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. Across all phases of his career, Mike has championed common-sense, forward-thinking solutions rooted in integrity and accountability.
Since leaving public office, Mike has continued to support those ideals, distancing himself from partisan politics as he shares his insights and songs with with others to attempting to inject independent, creative thought into the political process. create others to think. His insightful memoir “Picking, Politicking, and Pontificating” is available through his website MikeBallPPP.com.
