Russ Laraway is the author of When They Win, You Win: Being a Great Manager Is Simpler Than You Think, a transformative book on the three simple rules for creating happy, engaged teams and developing the most complete leadership standard.
Prior to his 30 year long career in business operations and advisory, Russ was a Company Commander in the Marine Corps. He would later found his first company, Pathfinders, and attend The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After receiving his degree in finance, Laraway joined Google as their Tech Industry Director and won Google’s 2011 Great Manager Award. He also held the position of Vice President, SMS Business at Twitter/X.
From there, Russ, alongside bestselling author Kim Scott, co-founded Radical Candor with the goal of helping support people improve their relationships at work and cultivate collaborative cultures. In 2018, Russ served multiple leadership roles as the Chief People Officer at Qualtrics and the Chief People Officer and later operating partner for Goodwater Capital. He currently serves in several board member and advisory roles for various tech companies.
Today, Russ Laraway has managed over 700 person teams and $700M businesses. Along the way, Russ has faced a diverse array of leadership challenges and triumphs. Inspired by the belief that people deserve to be led well, he authored When They Win, You Win to motivate managers to learn how to lead in the most effective way to drive employee engagement and yield “Happy Results.”
As a keynote speaker, Russ delivers powerful sessions based on the concepts of his book and his storied career in business leadership, including leadership consulting, advising, and training. He also speaks on key topics such as providing insight on how to manage leading teams through times of change and how to navigate downside performance management.
