Name Russ DeLeon | Role Executive | |
 | ||
Education University of California, Berkeley, Harvard Law School | ||
Russ DeLeon worked at PartyGaming with his wife Ruth Parasol.
Born in 1965 in Sacramento, California, DeLeon received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987. He then worked on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. for his local congressman the late Robert Matsui, and then for California Governor George Deukmejian as an Executive Fellow. He was admitted to Harvard Law School in 1988, but deferred his admission to travel around the world for one year, visiting 25 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia and then teaching English in Tokyo, Japan for 6 months.
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1992, DeLeon joined the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, as an Associate in the Business Department, Intellectual Property and Corporate Finance Groups where he managed a wide variety of transactions, such as venture capital financings, mergers & acquisitions and public offerings, for start-up and established high-tech, media and entertainment companies. During his two and a half years there, DeLeon helped Morrison & Foerster pioneer one of the leading “convergence” practices in the San Francisco Bay Area, and served as Co-Founder and General Counsel to the San Francisco Multimedia Development Group with over 500 corporate members.
In 1995, DeLeon co-founded Evolve Software in San Francisco and served as its Vice President, Finance & Administration, General Counsel, Treasurer and Company Secretary through over $250 million in venture fundraisings in multiple rounds, culminating in an August 2000 initial public offering on NASDAQ. After the float, DeLeon transitioned to Vice President, International Business Development and headed up the establishment of its European headquarters and business.
DeLeon joined PartyGaming as a full-time consultant in August 2001, when the group was just launching PartyPoker.com. DeLeon was involved in payment processing for the company and rode the profitable growth of PartyGaming, culminating in its June 2005 IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Barely breaking even in 2001, PartyGaming grew dramatically to over $500 million in annual profits by 2005. After the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in October 2006 and PartyGaming's subsequent exit of the US online gaming market, DeLeon has seen a significant reduction in his personal wealth, through holdings of PartyGaming shares.
DeLeon and Parasol were married in California in 2003. Since January 2004, they have lived in Gibraltar where they now have three children.
DeLeon has become a film producer and spends most of his time in Southern France and Ibiza.