Russ DeLeon was born in 1965 in Sacramento, California. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a B.A in philosophy, he worked on Capitol Hill and then as an Executive Fellow for California Governor George Deukmejian in Sacramento, responsible for legislative analysis of environmental laws.

In 1992, Russ graduated with a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and joined Morrison & Foerster as an associate focused on intellectual property and corporate finance for the emerging technology companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

Russ left the firm in 1995 to co-found Evolve Software, where he became senior financial and legal officer and established its European operations.

In 2001, Russ joined PartyGaming and helped make it the largest online gaming company in the world and float it on the London Stock Exchange in 2005.