Steve Russell joined the American Chemistry Council in 1995 and is currently the Vice President of the Plastics Division, where he leads public-private partnerships and solutions-oriented programs to address the sustainability of plastics. Mr. Russell is working to develop public-private partnerships to finance plastic recycling and waste management systems in emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently he played a key role in creating the World Plastics Council, a group of CEOs from among the world’s largest chemical and plastics companies to prioritize and fund systems to keep plastic out of our ocean.

In previous roles, Mr. Russell has participated in the development of chemicals management and product stewardship programs and policies in the US and Europe, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and with various multilateral organizations. He has served on a Federal advisory committee on chemicals policy, and created a voluntary industry initiative to generate and make publicly available critical health and safety information on industrial chemicals.  

Mr. Russell earned a BA from the University of Kansas and a JD from California Western School of Law. In 2017 Mr. Russell helped endow the “Barbara Cox / Steven Russell Endowed Scholarship in Support of LGBT Equality”. Mr. Russell and his husband live in Washington, D.C., where they are members of the Human Rights Campaign Federal Club.