Andrew Fred Russ

A Certified Public Accountant licensed in Texas since 2003, Andrew Fred Russ holds an MBA in Finance and Economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and two undergraduate degrees from Texas State University. Andy, as he is known, built a 25-year career at a $50B+ consumer-facing company, starting in hourly store operations as a student and advancing to Vice President of Planning & Analysis. The Texas-based finance executive and business advisor is now a Partner at Ellacap, leading its quality-of-earnings and financial diligence work for founder-led and family-owned businesses. He also leads Russ CPA, his own Texas CPA firm, as its Principal.
‍
At Texas State University, Andrew Fred Russ earned a BBA in Accounting and a BBA in Computer Information Systems, with Honors. The university recognized him with the LBJ Outstanding Senior Award. He later completed his graduate business education at Chicago Booth.
As a Partner at Ellacap, Andy Fred Russ helps owners buy and sell companies and leads quality-of-earnings and financial diligence. Ellacap works with founder-led and family-owned businesses with enterprise values of up to $100 million, providing advisory, accounting, and investing services. Those services span accounting cleanup, buy-side and sell-side advisory, quality of earnings (QoE) reviews, and fractional CFO support. In this work, Russ draws on more than two decades of planning, forecasting, and performance analysis within a large, complex business.
‍
As Principal of Russ CPA, he provides quality-of-earnings and transaction diligence services directly to clients. His expertise includes preparing a company for sale, keeping books clean and numbers credible enough to withstand diligence, fractional CFO support, item-level profitability, and the discipline to know which products actually make money.
‍
Russ was Vice President of Planning & Analysis from 2024 to 2026, the final role in his 25-year corporate career. He led more than 100 professionals across finance, analytics, data science, and pricing. He led the enterprise planning process, including the annual plan, the five-year plan, and the weekly forecast, spanning U.S. and international operations at a company with 60 offices and more than 400 locations.
‍
Before that, from 2016 to 2023, Andrew Fred Russ was Head of Merchant Planning & Analytics, a position in which he held Senior Director and Managing Director titles. He served as the senior financial and analytical partner to merchandising and regularly advised the senior executive committee on financial performance, trends, and strategic planning.
‍
From 2008 to 2015, he held Director and Senior Director roles in Planning & Analysis for Store Operations. There, he led finance and strategy for a major new-market expansion. Over time, he also took on financial infrastructure, annual planning, reporting, and multi-year roadmaps for operating divisions across Texas.
‍
His finance career began in 2002. Through 2008, Andy Fred Russ advanced through analyst and finance manager roles in multiple business divisions. Earlier, from 1996 to 2002, he worked front-line store operations jobs during high school and college, and in 2001 he completed an internship in Assurance, IT and Risk Consulting with Deloitte.
‍
Russ built two company-wide teams from scratch. One focuses on cost of goods and the other on decision science and data, and both became permanent parts of the company's operations.
‍
He also developed the company's first item-level merchant profit and loss statement (P&L). By giving buyers and store leaders one consistent view of performance, it moved 100 buyers and 400 store leaders off offline spreadsheets.
‍
As principal strategist, Andrew Fred Russ helped take a division from losses to strong profitability. He also provided the analytics behind five company-wide price investments in two years, all of them funded by cost savings.
‍
A department-wide leadership development program Russ built and ran produced five director promotions, one senior director promotion, and seven manager promotions over two years, and it improved team retention. Developing people sits at the heart of how he leads.
‍
Andy Fred Russ frames his leadership around three principles: developing people and building teams, bringing order to chaos, and democratizing intelligence. He explains the third as getting the right insight to decision-makers at the moment it matters most.
‍
For much of his career, Russ has served on nonprofit and university boards. He spent 20 years on the Texas State University McCoy College of Business advisory board and chaired it from 2021 to 2025. His role as Audit Committee Chair for the Boy Scouts of America, Alamo Area Council, from 2018 to 2022 carried personal meaning because he is an Eagle Scout. Since 2022, he has been a Trustee of the San Antonio Botanical Garden and a member of its Finance & Executive Committee.
‍
Andrew Fred Russ volunteers at his local church. He has supported Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, as well as First Baptist Church and MDPC Church in Houston.
‍
He grew up in Austin and now lives in Alamo Heights, Texas. Russ is a husband, son, and girl dad, and dog dad to Dutch, an English Cream Golden Retriever.
‍
Running, mountain climbing, skiing,g and trip planning fill most of his free time. Andy Fred Russ has finished 14 marathons, including the New York, Marine Corps, Houston, and Seattle marathons. He has also completed Disney's Goofy Challenge, which combines a half marathon on the first day with a full marathon on the second. Among his climbs are several Colorado 14ers, and his most memorable hike was Half Dome in Yosemite. He also skis, cycles,s and is a CrossFit regular.
‍
Travel has taken Russ to Oktoberfest in Munich and to ski in the Swiss and French Alps, and summers mean family time in Chicago. He considers himself a lifelong learner and approaches each new race, summit and destination with the planning mindset and curiosity that shape his professional work.

Business Website 1

Business Website 2