Daniel Russell
US-Russia Business Council
President & CEO
Daniel A. Russell is the President and CEO of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, the premier Washington-based bilateral trade organization dedicated to commercial relations between the U.S. and Russia. Previously, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for relations with Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus and for international security and arms control issues in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs until July 2013. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Russell served on the White House-led interagency team, overseeing the legislative strategy to lift the application of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to Russia and improve access to the Russian market for U.S. business. As part of his efforts in the commercial sphere, he supported a government-to-government advocacy campaign to assist the sale of 90 airliners to Russia valued at $11 billion, the largest American commercial export package to Russia in history. He also led the successful negotiations with Russia to conclude the newly liberalized visa regime that went into effect in 2012. A career member of the Foreign Service, Mr. Russell served as Chief of Staff to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns from 2008 to 2009, as Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow from 2005 to 2008 and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 2000 to 2003. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1983, he has held positions in Washington and abroad, including Director of the Office of Russian Affairs, Director of the Office of European Political and Security Affairs, Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Yekaterinburg, Special Assistant for Europe to the Under Secretary of Political Affairs, and First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Mr. Russell has worked in the State Department offices responsible for relations with the United Kingdom and Cuba and served at the U.S. Embassies in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. Mr. Russell holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Maine and an M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University.
