Russ is a Delivery Director at Spaulding Ridge. Before transitioning to consulting, he held a variety of positions in higher education and public sector leadership, including Executive Director of Finance and Budget at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Mayor of New Smyrna Beach. His responsibilities have included all aspects of annual revenue and expense budgeting, long range planning, capital planning, and executive reporting in a multi-campus environment. As Mayor, he also provided executive leadership for a team of 300 employees in a community of 30,000 citizens.
Additionally, Russ has more than six years of consulting experience in higher education, including work with the University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Emory University, University of South Florida, and dozens of other institutions. He has assisted schools with annual budgeting, long-range planning, capital planning and management reporting and many other use cases.
Russ holds a B.S. in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Central Florida. Russell was also the 2022 Young Government Officer of the Year.