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As president of Blackboard’s Phoenix-based Commerce business, Russ is responsible for the leadership of the campus-card solution known as the Blackboard Commerce Suite. This solution enhances campus life for millions of students by providing access control, point-of-sale technology and devices for unattended commerce.
Russ joined Blackboard in 2002 as a director for field operations for both the Blackboard Academic Suite and the Blackboard Commerce Suite, responsible for clients in the western United States. He later became vice president of sales for the Blackboard Commerce Suite. In April 2006 he was promoted to general manager of the commerce business and in 2007, to president. In the past year Russ has visited over 40 clients and has installed a new senior management team focused on executing the expect more program.
Russ spent the first ten years of his career in software development and implementation first with AT&T and then in IBM Professional Services. This was followed by a move to sales and business development first at Manugistics, the technology company that created supply chain management as a category, and then at Oracle where he had sales responsibilities for the process industry line of business.
Russ holds a bachelor of Business Systems from Taylor University in Indiana. | 