Timea E Nagy
Who is Timea?
TIMEA E NAGY is a Best-Selling Author, UN Advisor, Human Rights Activist and Keynote Speaker. Timea’s journey as a survivor of sex trafficking has led her to be one of the leading voices and change-makers in national and global movements. As a founder of Canada’s first victim service agency, aiming to serve victims of human trafficking, and a founder of Canada’s first safe house for victims of human trafficking, Timea has an incredible tale to tell.
Not just a story about the survival of her own tragic events, but about her personal healing journey while becoming the Nation’s face, voice and leader in fighting the crime of Human Trafficking.
Timea is a visionary, a change-maker, a humanitarian, a motivational & inspirational speaker, and a global influencer. Timea will speak with the same ease to a group of uniformed officers as the Prime Minister of Canada, Kings, Queens, Princes & German-speaking Heads of State, or in front of the toughest crowds we know: teenage girls!
Timea's Work
In 2009 Ms. Nagy founded ‘Walk with Me,’ a non-profit organization to assist victims of human trafficking and law enforcement agencies. Between 2009 and 2015, her organization helped over 300 victims and over 500 human trafficking-related investigations throughout Canada. In fact, Ms. Nagy played a key role in Canada’s largest human trafficking investigation led by the Canadian Federal Police (RCMP Niagara Falls Detachment), known as project OPAPA.
Ms. Nagy provided training to numerous agencies in Canada, the U.S. and Europe – reaching hundreds of thousands of people within various sectors such as Law Enforcement, Financial Institutions, Hospitality, Real Estate, Tech, and much more. She has also worked with social media giants such as Facebook and Airbnb, assisting their Special Victim Unit and Financial Intelligence Investigators related to human trafficking. Ms. Nagy has also trained The United Nations Police and Office on Drugs & Crime, provided to 97 countries online.
During the pandemic, Ms. Nagy founded TC Online Institute, the world’s first Survivor-Led Human Trafficking Educational Center. Timea’s course, The Mindset of a Human Trafficked Victim, was developed by TC Online Institute in partnership with other survivor leaders. This course has been officially adopted by the Canadian Police Knowledge Network, Canada’s largest online police training institute- serving 100,000 members. Her Survivor-Led Police Training has also been implemented by some of the largest police agencies in Canada, such as the RCMP, Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police, and more.
Timea was instrumental in bringing an American Victim Rescue Model to Canada, later named Project Northern Spotlight, where hundreds of police agencies timed their victim rescue operations on the same days across Canada. Hundreds of wanted criminals were arrested, organized crime operations were discovered, and victims were rescued and offered a safe existence.
Timea during an undercover operation working with the Houston Police Human Trafficking Taskforce, 2018
Ms. Nagy has also brought her strategic advisory skills to global governments, such as the OSCE and the United Nations, under the umbrella of the FAST Initiative—an organization mobilizing the Financial sector worldwide powered by the United Nations University.
Timea was also one of the Survivor Leaders and voice during the United Nations Financial Taskforce Against Modern Day Slavery. As a result, she and her Survivor Leader partner recommended that the Financial Sector create a program where the Survivors can regain their status in the Financial sector by being offered bank accounts and other financial services. The program is now called The Survivor Inclusion Initiative and is active more than ten countries, and over 2,500 survivors have received their first bank card after being trafficked. Timea is assisting Scotiabank to further build out this program in Canada.
Timea was also the first Survivor to educate the Financial Sector on the importance of Human Trafficking Detection through transactions. Timea inspired the Globally known, award-winning Canadian project called Project Protect. The world’s first public/private partnership is where banks, law enforcement and regulators unite to fight Human Trafficking by breaking down privacy-related policies and barriers. FINTRAC, Canada’s Financial Regulator body, spearheaded the project and by using the same method, they decided to pilot several other projects to fight crimes from a Financial angle. The projects got incredible results not only in Canada but globally. Project Protect has played a key role in fighting crimes like child abuse, animal cruelty, and elderly abuse more effectively.
Ms. Nagy’s work and the story have been featured in Forbes Magazine, CNN, NBC, Fox News, The Social, and all the major Canadian media outlets.
Queen Elizabeth II, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Attorney General, and the Governor General have recognized her work.
Her memoir, Out of the Shadows, was released in May 2019 and became a National Bestseller within 6 days of release.
Timea at the United Nations Assembly, New York, 2017