Victoria Russell

Victoria Russell has led a successfully 20+ year career across many disciplines including Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Crisis Management & Brand Reputation, Marketing, Data & Insights, Community Engagement, Human Resources and Compensation. In Victoria's most recent role, she was named the first Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer of Beam Suntory, a world leader in premium spirits. In this newly created role, Russell joined the company’s Senior Leadership Team and leads diversity and inclusion across talent acquisition, career development and employee retention, marketing, community relations, and building organizational capability to better recognize bias and further drive inclusive mindset. Russell also supported the development of diversity guidelines for the company’s supplier base and champions Employee Impact Groups and leaders across the business.

Before joining Beam Suntory, Russell had a successful 14-year career at Papa John’s International, ultimately stepping up during difficult times in 2018 to become the first to lead Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. In that role, Russell was credited with step-changing the company’s actions to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization comprised of 120,000 team members. She previously held marketing analytics roles of increasing responsibility, providing valuable insights into the business, and the customers and communities they serve. Prior to Papa Johns, Victoria held compensation and marketing roles at Lexmark, Humana, and Brown-Forman and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and a M.B.A in Marketing from the University of Kentucky.

Victoria has served on several non-profit boards and received numerous recognitions such as founding member of the Adweek D&I Council, named one of the Adweek & Adcolor 2020 Champions of Diversity & Inclusion, Class of 2020 Executive Leadership Council member, and honored as a Daughter of Greatness by the Muhammad Ali Center.