Russell joined Cardiva Medical as president, CEO and board member in 2015, bringing over 30 years of medical device experience in sales, marketing, business development and R&D. At Cardiva, Russell has been responsible for expanding commercialization of the company’s portfolio of vascular closure devices designed for diagnostic and interventional cardiac, endovascular and electrophysiology (EP) procedures. Under his leadership, Cardiva has secured Premarket Approval from the FDA for its most recent product, VASCADE MVP, which is the first vessel closure technology designed specifically for EP procedures. The company has also been recognized with the Shingo prize for operational excellence in manufacturing, which enabled a 3-year growth of 183% – a sales growth that also earned Cardiva recognition on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.
Before Cardiva, Russell served as CEO of Corventis – a venture capital financed company that pioneered a wearable, wireless patch system for monitoring cardiac patients outside the hospital setting. During his tenure, Corventis gained four new FDA clearances, deployed the system commercially with patients in over 25 countries, and was acquired by Medtronic in 2014.
Immediately prior to Corventis, Russell was head of U.S. sales for the Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) division of Boston Scientific, responsible for 1,300 employees and over $1.5 billion in revenue. Russell also served as general manager for the LATITUDE Patient Management organization at Guidant / Boston Scientific where he led the team in deploying the industry’s first wireless in-home patient monitoring system to 80,000 patients.
Earlier in his career, Russell held the roles of sales representative, regional sales manager and sales director, as well as manager of market planning and director of new product planning – all with Guidant’s CRM division. Prior to Guidant, Russell was a research and development engineer at Edwards Lifesciences.
Russell holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.