Russell has spent most of his professional career in marketing. He was advertising director for a Washington regional newspaper as well as sporting life editor covering the Virginia Hunt Country. After the newspaper, Russell founded a sports marketing agency managing corporate sponsorship of race cars competing in the United States and Europe. He was VP of marketing at a privately held bio-tech firm before joining TTR Sotheby's International Realty.His business experience is, therefore, in both conventional and unconventional marketing.Russell has lived in the Washington area for over 20 years, in both Georgetown and Middleburg, Virginia. His extensive knowledge of horse farms/estates, and of real estate in the District of Columbia and its environs, is partly the result of his own investments in both town and country properties. A former Orvis dealer, Russell is an avid fly fisherman who has traveled from the Bahamas to Africa with annual trips to Wyoming and Montana. He now enjoys staying closer to home with his wife, Stefanie, their baby girl, Genevieve and their black lab, Abbey.