RUSS DAVIS
Biography
As a teenager, Russ used to help his dad in his basement workshop assisting in the repair of citizen band radios. It was the beginning of a telecommunications career that would last 20 years.
Starting in Salem, Russ and his then business partner Patrick Cox, started Line One Telecommunications, an office and mobile telecom company. Shortly thereafter, they secured a contract with AT&T Wireless (then Cellular One) to be the area’s first cellular sales and service center. Before long, Line One became the largest cellular agent in the south Willamette Valley selling more phones than most other agents combined. It was then that the idea of Metro One Telecommunications was born.
One of the biggest complaints from cellular users was the inability to get information while on the road. In 1989, Russ co-founded and launched Metro One Telecommunications, the cellular directory assistance provider. The company went public on NASDAQ in 1996 as MTON with an opening share price of $8.00. By 2000, the share price was over $50 and climbing.
Also in 1994, Russ had started another telecom company, Telecard Services International. This company provided wholesale prepaid phone card services to the telecom industry across the nation. The company gathered steam and with revenues of almost $3 million annually, was sold in 1996 to Electric Lightwave (NASDAQ: ELIX) of Vancouver, Washington.
Beginning to experience telecommunications saturation, Russ felt like it was time to change careers and contribute to a more sustainable industry model. Looking around in 1997, he ran across a small yard debris recycling facility which he purchased in July of 1998. Upon partnering up with Del McGill, by 2000 revenues had jumped 600% and the facility was looking for a place to expand. Instead, the company was sold to a soil blender in close proximity to the facility.
In 2001 Russ and Del launched Organix, Inc. The concept behind Organix was to find agricultural related businesses that were having difficulty with their waste management programs and propose solutions. In 2002, the company secured the huge Threemile Canyon Farms dairy/farm project in Eastern Oregon as a large-scale, integrated compost facility. The concept behind integration was to change the farm mentality from “waste” to “unprocessed resource”. To date, the Threemile facility has processed over one billion pounds of waste into bedding, fertilizer and marketable soil amendments. Over 75 clients in the Portland Oregon metro area purchase compost products from Threemile Canyon.
Russ brings to the company sales, marketing, media and public relations experience. Over the years, he has been a featured speaker in telecom, composting and renewable energy expos and conferences. He has been listed numerous times in the “Who’s Who” Directory of Executives and Professionals. He has written over a dozen articles for industry trade magazines and newspapers and continues to be sought after for his ability to take an idea and make it into a marketable product. He is currently assisting in the development of a biogas powered system that takes manure waste and captures the methane gas to produce energy. Production facilities came online in 2005.