Our Founder
At the height of the space race in 1962, with JFK’s words (quoted below) ringing in his ears, Russell was blinded in a model rocket accident. The social narrative at the time told him he could expect to be a ward of the state, or perhaps sell pencils on the street corner. He refused this narrative and declared that he would be a useful member of society. He went on to become the first blind MBA from an ivy-league school, a titan of wall street, a self-made millionaire, the longest-serving member of the US Civil Rights Commission, and a three-time world Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu Champion against sighted people. He is the first and highest-ranked blind BJJ black belt and one of only two so honored. Russell has captained companies in Silicon Valley, consulted with industry, opened his own Investment advisory company, and authored a book about his life, “ A Blind Man's Vision for Rewriting the Stories that Limit Us.”
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
— John Fitzgerald Kennedy