Neil Russell

Neil Russell is Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) at Sysco. He previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer and as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Chief Communications Officer. As CAO, he is responsible for Sysco’s overall strategy and portfolio governance. He is also accountable for Sysco’s Communications, Marketing, Community Relations, Sustainability, and Government Relations functions.

Neil began his Sysco career in 2007 as Vice President, Investor Relations. In 2014, he served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at International Paper (Veritiv), where he led the company’s Investor Relations, Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Government Relations functions. He rejoined Sysco in 2015 as Vice President, Investor Relations, and while in that role, took on the additional responsibility for Sysco’s Corporate Communications and CSR teams as well as the role of Treasurer. He was later promoted to Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer. He served as Interim CFO from December of 2022 through April of 2023.

Prior to Sysco, Neil held roles in Strategic Planning, Revenue Management and Financial Auditing at America West Airlines, and Investor Relations, Financial Planning & Analysis, Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategic Planning at Delta Air Lines.

Neil is Secretary of the Board of Kids’ Meals in Houston, a non-profit that delivers free meals to fight hunger in pre-school aged children. He is also on the Strategic Advisory Board of the March of Dimes and has been a volunteer teacher with Junior Achievement for the past 13 years. He was appointed by the White House Administration to be on the Wilson Center Advisory Board, reporting to Congress, assisting with food security and supply chain complexities around the world. Neil received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Arizona State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the New York Institute of Technology.