Meet the Founders

John & Pamela Russell

Nearly 30 Years of Building, Learning, Inventing and Serving Customers Together

Russell Watergardens & Koi is the product of two very different but complementary backgrounds.

John Russell brought design, construction, problem-solving and product development.

Pamela Russell brought decades of customer-service experience, organization and business operations.

Together, they built Russell Watergardens around something they both believed from the beginning:

Take care of the customer.

That principle has guided the company since 1997 and continues to influence the products Russell Watergardens develops, the information it provides and the way customers are treated today.

John Russell

Founder • Product Designer • Inventor

John Russell has spent nearly three decades designing, building and studying ponds and water features.

But his path into the industry began with a broader landscape design, construction and maintenance business serving residential customers in the Seattle area.

John quickly became fascinated by water.

What began as one part of the landscape business eventually became its entire focus. By 1997, Russell Watergardens was specializing in ponds and water features.

Years spent designing, installing and maintaining water features gave John an opportunity to see both sides of the industry.

He saw what worked when a pond was first installed.

More importantly, he saw what happened years later when the owner had to maintain it.

That experience changed the way he approached water-feature design.

Asking “Why?”

John has always had a tendency to question how things work.

Why does a filter have to be so difficult to clean?

Why should debris be allowed to accumulate somewhere difficult to reach?

Why should accessing a pump require dismantling part of a water feature?

Why should homeowners need specialized tools to install equipment?

Why should someone have to choose completely between the natural appearance of a water garden and the functional design principles of a koi pond?

And perhaps most importantly:

Why can't we make it better?

Those questions eventually took John from installing other manufacturers' products to developing products and complete systems of his own.

From Pond Builder to Inventor

John's product development has resulted in numerous Russell Watergardens products and water-feature concepts, including the original pondless waterfall concept, the patented Hydro Vortex™ waterfall filter, HydroClean™ pond skimmers, HydroSieve™ pre-filters, HydroChamber™ pump and water-storage chambers, and complete approaches to filtered pondless waterfalls and water features.

His work also led to new approaches to pond design, including the Hybrid Pond™, CrossOver Pond™ and Bubble-Less Koi Pond™ concepts.

Although the products are different, the thinking behind them is remarkably consistent:

Make installation practical. Make maintenance accessible. Solve problems instead of hiding them. And design for the person who will ultimately own the system.

John has also spent many years teaching others what he's learned through articles, classes, presentations, instructional materials, photography and videos about ponds and water features.

For him, developing something new has never been enough.

People should also understand how and why it works.

Pamela Russell

Co-Founder • President • Customer Experience & Operations

If John is continually asking how the product can work better, Pamela has spent her career asking an equally important question:

How can we serve the customer better?

Pamela's customer-service experience began long before Russell Watergardens.

Beginning in 1982, she worked in customer-facing positions in upscale retail as well as the leisure and business travel industries. Those experiences helped shape the service standards she later brought to Russell Watergardens.

When John and Pamela went into business together, customer service wasn't treated as a department.

It became part of the way the company operated.

Building the Company Behind the Products

Over the years, Pamela has been involved in nearly every operational side of Russell Watergardens.

She has worked in water-feature design and estimating and managed the company's former design/build operation.

She developed and managed many of the systems required to operate the business, including purchasing, inventory, shipping and receiving, personnel, bookkeeping and day-to-day operations.

As Russell Watergardens evolved from a local pond contractor into a three-acre retail operation, manufacturer and eventually an online business serving customers across the country, Pamela helped build the operational structure that allowed the company to evolve with it.

But her greatest influence may be harder to see on an organizational chart.

It's the belief that how a customer is treated matters just as much as what you sell them.

That principle remains central to Russell Watergardens today.

Two Perspectives. One Philosophy.

John and Pamela approach the business from different directions.

John tends to look at a product and ask:

How can we make this work better?

Pamela tends to look at the customer's experience and ask:

How can we make this better for them?

Those two questions have shaped Russell Watergardens for nearly three decades.

They explain why product development and customer service have always been so closely connected within the company.

A product that's frustrating to install isn't providing good customer service.

A filter that's unnecessarily difficult to clean isn't providing a good ownership experience.

Instructions that don't adequately explain a product aren't serving the customer.

And selling someone equipment that isn't appropriate for their project isn't good customer service—regardless of whether it produces a sale.

The product and the customer experience are two parts of the same thing.

That's the philosophy John and Pamela continue to bring to Russell Watergardens.

Still a Family Business

Russell Watergardens has changed tremendously since 1997.

The contracting business grew into a destination retail store. The retail operation led to research, testing and manufacturing. The internet allowed Russell Watergardens to serve customers far beyond the Pacific Northwest. And eventually the company relocated from Washington to Arizona.

But at its heart, Russell Watergardens is still the business John and Pamela built together.

They're still involved.

They're still answering questions.

They're still developing products.

They're still creating educational information.

And they're still working together to serve Russell Watergardens customers.