Clifford L. Russell, Jr. PMP, is a get it done guy! For years, he has put that trait to work for him as an employee and as his own boss.
With a well-established reputation as an “idea guy" and enviable strengths as a communicator, a motivator, and a collaborator, Cliff maintains an impressive list of accomplishments in project and portfolio management. He excels as a leader in most any environment, and he possesses the rare ability to shift gears and seamlessly transition from managing ideas to implementing them. Cliff's ability to communicate and motivate take front and center when he leads client teams as they lead their own teams through company technology transformations. He has established a reputation for innovation in systems architecture, that he credits to his creative background as a visual artist.
As Vice President of Technology leading the Office of Innovation at Delta Global Services, Cliff led an exciting transformation of their core business systems. Taking a greenfield approach to there-engineering of the entire back office, he further guided GDS along the path to a secure, compliant, cloud-first, mobile-first approach to technology service provision.
A true collaborator and critical thinker who believes the best results are achieved by using technology where it makes sense--not implementing it for its own sake, Cliff was responsible for leading the technology transformation as Chief Information Officer at Morehouse College. There he was given a limited budget and charged with the immense task of eradicating the campus's digital divide. Rising to that challenge with his typically strong work ethic, he excelled in service with the most dedicated senior and technical staff of his IT career.
Prior to this, Cliff was responsible for aligning his corporate technology vision with HeiTech Services’ business strategy by integrating company processes with the appropriate technologies. There, he served as Vice President of Technology (and Chief Information Officer?). He was responsible for all aspects of developing and implementing technology initiatives within the organization. Cliff transformed existing enterprise systems with the development and implementation of information security plans to protect corporate integrity and confidentiality and to ensure regulatory compliance, as well.
Leading up to this, Cliff served as a cloud transformation consultant in the commercial and federal space. He held key roles in developing the IT and multimedia infrastructures of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His tour of duty at NASA also inspired his strong interest in data storage and archiving technologies.
Cliff is hands on technical and an experienced PMP, over the years, he has attracted and retained the top talent in his field, delivering results, on time and on budget!
While working on the XTE, ASCA, and ROSAT missions during his tenure at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, Cliff developed an interest in data storage and archiving technologies. This is been a strong foundation for his most recent projects, moving companies from strictly on premises IT to a hybrid approach that uses cloud where most effective but is not all or nothing. Organizations are starting to realize the extraordinary value of their un-structured data, and now need expertise and tools to un-pack the value of that data. This has to be done thoughtfully and carefully to achieve to desired results.
Over the span of his technology career, Cliff held key roles in developing the IT and multimedia infrastructures of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department of the University of Maryland–College Park. Additionally, he was a crucial player in architecting, procuring, and deploying all major IT infrastructure projects in the department.
The time and experience at UMD laid the groundwork for Cliff's tenure as the VP of Technology & CIO at Morehouse College. At Morehouse, Cliff led the efforts around digital transformation of the Morehouse campus infrastructure.
