Graham Russell is a sustainable business expert and thought-leader.  A successful businessman, he has over 20 years of experience as the CEO of small and mid-sized companies.    Among his other accomplishments, Graham developed and executed a successful “roll-up” strategy in the environmental laboratory industry. He created a $50 million company that employed over 700 people and was the third largest such company in the US. For many years Graham was a leading figure in the industry and President of the Environmental Section of the American Council of Independent Laboratories.

Later in his career, Graham served as the Executive Director of CORE, a non-profit sustainable business association based in Denver. Under his leadership CORE expanded its membership and fundraising efforts to become financially solvent.  As a result, CORE expanded programming and began offering educational programs to teach small companies how to implement green and sustainable business practices.  Graham was also the originator of the Sustainable Opportunities Summit. The Summit has gained recognition as the premier sustainable business conference in the Rocky Mountain Region and will be held for the 7th time in 2012.

Graham specializes in applying his extensive experience as a CEO to the development of successful sustainability-based strategies.  In 2002, Graham founded TrupointAdvisors, a sustainable business consulting firm that helps companies adopt sustainable management practices to achieve a competitive advantage and improved financial performance.

TrupointAdvisors has helped many companies utilize sustainable business practices to drive innovations that maximize market opportunities.  For example, Graham developed an innovative environmentally and socially responsible market-positioning strategy for a small electronics waste recycler. The strategy enabled the company to become an industry leader that achieved rapid and exceptionally profitable growth. The company was eventually sold for a multi-million dollar profit to the owner.

An accomplished writer, Graham was the originator and a co-author of “A Simple Path to Sustainability: Green Business Strategies for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses”, which shares case studies of smaller companies that have achieved success through sustainability-based strategies. The book has been praised for effectively showcasing the steps that existing companies have taken to incorporate sustainability as a strategic driver of innovation, competitive advantage and financial success. Graham also writes extensively for trade publications and online magazines.

In 2010, Graham was asked to join the University of Colorado – Denver Business School as an adjunct faculty member to help improve and enhance the school’s sustainable business curriculum. He currently directs a course entitled The sustainable Business Opportunity and serves as Co-Chair of the School’s Managing for Sustainability Advisory Council. He has also delivered guest lectures at Colorado State University, the University of Denver and Regis University.

In addition to his teaching, Graham has been the Emcee for the past two years at the Summit County (CO) Sustainabiz Conference and has served as a guest speaker on sustainable business at a variety of conferences and professional association meetings.

Graham lives with his wife in Estes Park, CO, where they are currently building a green home. The couple has been married for 40 years and they enjoy mountain hiking, gardening in a mountain environment and visiting their daughter and son-in law in Germany.