Intersouth’s Russell Returns to LP

Sallie Shuping Russell will return to the limited partner ranks today as a managing director with The Quellos Group, after a three-year flirtation with direct VC investing at Intersouth Partners.

The move has been warmly received by many in the institutional investor community, who remember Russell from her time with Duke Investment Management Co., McMillion Eubanks Capital Management and Cambridge Associates.

“Sallie is a really good person and has a good eye for this type of investing,” says an endowment portfolio manager who preferred to remain anonymous. “I don’t think that she would have left for just any opportunity, and this one makes sense because she’s going somewhere that also has her former partner at Duke, Gene McDonald.”

Russell originally joined Intersouth as a general partner in March 2001, after having co-founded Duke Management Co. and serving as that group’s vice president and director of private investments.

Much of her work at Intersouth dealt with client relations, but she did lead several investments in the life sciences sector.

Soon after going part-time last year, Russell was contacted by McDonald, who had left Duke to launch a private markets platform for hedge fund-of-funds manager The Quellos Group.

“This really is about me wanting the opportunity to build a team with Gene, because I know what he’s capable of doing,” Russell says. “I’m at the point where I’m looking at what I want to be doing for the next 15 years, and while I really enjoyed my time at Intersouth and learned a lot, I think that this new role fits me very well.”

Her last day with Intersouth was on June 1, and she begins today as a managing director with Quellos. The firm already has raised more than $400 million in fund-of-fund capital, and Russell is expected to help with future offerings.

She will maintain her financial interest in Intersouth’s current fund, and plans to stay involved with her portfolio companies over the next several months. Intersouth puts two investment professionals on each deal, and Russell’s two remaining board seats will be taken by “second chair” Chris Hegele.

Email Daniel.Primack@thomson.com