Jay Russell is the Chief Financial Officer at Evolution. He joined the firm in March 2024. Jay has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Prior to joining Evolution, Jay was the Head of Finance for Polen, LLC (formerly DDJ Capital Management, LLC), a high yield and leveraged credit manager, where he provided leadership and oversight for the financial accounting and reporting, tax, company procurement and vendor risk management, and other company operations matters and additionally served as co-lead for the company’s valuation committee and was a member of the pricing committee (for all investment strategies and vehicles). Prior to joining Polen in 2022, Jay was the Chief Financial Officer for DDJ, where he had oversight and duties that covered all financial accounting and reporting, tax, back-office operations and duties focused on the strategic management of the company, including leading or sitting on multiple committees. Each of the tax, technology and human resource leads reported up to Jay. Jay began his career in audit practice at Ernst & Young LLP where he was most recently an Audit Manager.

Jay earned his joint Master’s in Accounting/MBA from Northeastern University and his AB from Brown University and is a licensed CPA in the state of Massachusetts. Jay also proudly serves as an advisory board member of the Greater Boston Food Bank.

At Evolution, Jay is focused on managing the company's financial actions and is responsible for financial planning and record-keeping.