In Russell's 25+ years of experience he has held senior positions with Digital Equipment, Prime Computervision, Encore Computer and AOX Inc. He has extensive experience in product design and managing product development groups focusing on computer architecture, systems and communications design.

In 1983 Russell became the VP of Hardware Development for the founding team of Hydra Computer Systems, a manufacturer of multiprocessor computer systems. Hydra Computer Systems was later purchased by Encore Computer.