Jim Mellado is president of Willow Creek Association, responsible for providing overall leadership to staff and volunteers, helping accomplish WCA's purpose of maximizing the life-transformation effectiveness of local churches. He has been with the WCA since 1992, and has served as its president since 1993.

He graduated cum laude with a Mechanical engineering degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and is a 1991 graduate of the Harvard Business School. While a student at Harvard, he wrote a case study on Willow Creek Community Church. In 1988, he competed in the Olympic Games (decathlon) in Seoul, South Korea for the country of his birth, El Salvador.