always seemed to have several paths to success

Russ is a rare combination of deep technical acumen, proactivity, and a keen understanding of the human and political landscape of any solution he’s involved with. Where other Solution Architects may bring you a solution or a path to a solution, Russ always seemed to have several paths to success in his back pocket. He used his skills of perception to suggest the one or two solutions that met a customer’s financial, technical, and emotional/political needs best. These skills often reside across several members of a team, and Russ’ ability to bring all of them to bear on solutions gave Level 3 (and later CenturyLink) a tremendous advantage in meeting our customer’s multi-faceted needs. I look forward to the day our paths cross again and would happily bring Russ into any team I am involved with or work with him on a team he is leading.