Russell Sewell, Managing Director CS Real Estate Partners
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Russell Sewell is the founder and Managing Director of CS Real Estate Fund, a commercial real estate fund focused on investments in Arizona. Prior to founding CS Real Estate Partners, Mr. Sewell was the Chief Executive Officer of Rojan Holdings, LLC, a commercial real estate owner/operator firm based in Phoenix, Arizona. Russ began providing services to Rojan in the Fall of 2005 as part of a corporate restructuring of Rojan’s commercial real estate holdings. As the CEO of Rojan, he was also responsible for the formulation and execution of the strategic plan involving the acquisition and management of commercial properties by the company.
Prior to joining Rojan, Rusell Sewell was the founder and Managing Partner of Aspen Grove Ventures, an information technology venture capital firm. Mr. Sewell established Aspen Grove in 2000 to invest in opportunities in the technology sector that existed in the Mountain West region raising over $9 million in commitments. At Aspen Grove, Mr. Sewell made seven investments in technology companies in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Seattle. Two companies have been sold, and four others remain as outstanding investments.
Russell Sewell actively participates as a director in companies where Aspen Grove has invested. He currently serves as a director at Infopia, Inc. of Sandy, Utah, and Beganto, Inc.of San Jose, California. Mr. Sewell was the Chairman of the Board of Alatron Software Corporation of Seattle, Washington until its acquisition by Beganto. Over the past four years, Mr. Sewell participated in 10 financings in seven companies and oversaw three reorganizations. He was active in the Series B and bridge financing of Cerberian before it was acquired by Blue Coat Systems in November 2004 and led restructuring efforts at Infopia. Mr. Sewell is also the President of UCRA, Inc. a Utah non-profit entity that anticipates managing a mix of financial assets in collaboration with the David Eccles Business School at the University of Utah.
Prior to founding Aspen Grove, Mr. Sewell served as a Managing Director at Red Rock Capital Group, LLC, a venture-capital firm in Provo, Utah. Red Rock focused on investing in early-stage technology companies located in the Rocky Mountains. Russ participated as a co-lead investor in the $11.3 million third round investment for PowerQuest, which was eventually to sold to Symantec for $154 million in December 2003.
After graduating from Brigham Young University, Mr. Sewell held senior positions at Strategic Capital Management, Inc., where he was responsible for trading and allocating a $150 million portfolio. Mr. Sewell has a B.A in Political Science from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. from the Marriott School of Business Management at Brigham Young University.