About Russell Stoll
After learning the ropes at a small web shop named Neographic, Russ worked as editor and managing editor at iGuide Net Reviews (a pre-Internet-bubble venture of News Corporation) and, for seven years, as community manager and creative director at the LEGO Company, makers of the famous plastic building bricks. During his tenure at LEGO, he launched the successful LEGO Mindstorms online community and played a key role in kickstarting the online LEGO Club. He also managed the development of LEGO Digital Designer, the company’s downloadable 3D-building tool for consumers. His name is on a U.S. patent application for aspects of that program.
Russ graduated from Columbia University with bachelors degrees in liberal arts and biomechanics and an M.B.A. in marketing. He’s also studied Japanese at Berkeley (to prepare for an English-teaching job in Tokyo) and international business at the Stockholm School of Economics.
In his spare time, Russ writes fiction and makes Craftsman and Japanese-inspired furniture in a small woodworking shop shoehorned into the second bedroom of his apartment. Someday he’d like to learn to play jazz piano.