A highly respected leader in restaurant real estate circles, Russell served as Chief Development Officer for the wildly-successful restaurant chain, The Habit Burger Grill. He spent 9 years with the company where he quarterbacked site acquisition, design, development, construction and property management during the company’s primary expansion phase leading the fast casual better-burger brand from 18 to over 200 locations. With over 275 locations nationwide, Habit was acquired by YUM! Brands in March 2020.
Over the past 25 years, Russell has been hands-on as an industry leader in corporate real estate roles for multiple national restaurant and entertainment brands including P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Pei Wei Asian Diner, Baja Fresh, Sega GameWorks and chef Wolfgang Puck directly responsible for strategy, procurement & negotiation in excess of 300 lease transactions with the most active shopping center REITs and retail property owners in the country.
Russell looks forward to the opportunity to help young emerging restaurant brands grow and thrive, embedding skill sets he’s spent decades learning. His deep development experience, market knowledge, industry leadership and insightful business acumen will produce immediate measurable results, parachuting into an organization melding with its existing team to coach, mentor, execute and share best practices eventually imprinting his knowledge permanently inside the brand.