Russell graduated from Coventry University and joined Lotus in 1990 after spending 2 years working for Peter Horbury at MGA developments. Whilst at Lotus he has been privileged to lead the design of multiple third-party programmes aswell as numerous Lotus products that include the second-generation Elise, Exige, Evora, 3-Eleven and more recently the Emira and Evija. His passion for the brand was fired during childhood by a prized collection of toy road and racing Lotus and has continued into adulthood with ownership of the “real thing“.