Mr. Rice has a unique depth and range of experience spanning multiple industries. With over twenty-five years of operational, financial, and sales experience, he is skilled at bringing new products and services to market — dozens of new products and services for more than 20 different companies. Most recently, Mr. Rice co-founded Velocity Broadcasting, the first of its kind private television network. In his role as the company’s President, he directly managed the deployment of more than one hundred satellite downlink locations across the United States, while leading the sales effort that pioneered the private broadcast concept.
Previously, Mr. Rice was recruited to lead AgriCap - an initiative to provide vendor financing on a $12 billion trading platform utilized in the perishable food industry. He authored the business plan, raised $5 million in private investment, and managed the company day-to-day. Prior to his work at AgriCap, Mr. Rice served as Director of Sales Operations for Foveon, a company that mined Internet transaction data from network access points. While there, he rapidly recruited, trained and deployed a nationwide sales team that exceeded the company’s first year objectives in nine months.
At the age of twenty-four, Mr. Rice founded Kisco, a contract furniture sales and marketing company, and for the next fifteen years he managed all aspects of the business. Under his leadership, the business grew to $20 million in annual sales.
Russell is conversant in Spanish and holds a Bachelor of Economics Degree from the University of Pittsburgh.