Vessel Welcomes Tara Varga Russell as Chief Strategy Officer and appoints her to newly formed Board

Boise, Idaho – Vessel, the leading smart assessment platform powering U.S. manufacturing consulting agencies, is pleased to announce the addition of Tara Varga Russell as Chief Strategy Officer and appointment of Tara to its newly formed Board. Tara joins Vessel at a critical time of national growth and expansion, bringing decades of experience in executive leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategic innovation to help shape the company’s next chapter of scale.

Tara is a seasoned social entrepreneur and visionary operator with an accomplished background across sectors. Most recently, she co-founded Photon Marine, a clean tech startup focused on electrifying commercial marine fleets. Prior to that, Tara served as the founding President of Fathom and CIO for Carnival Corporation, where she pioneered the “Impact Travel” category and led the historic expansion into Cuba after four decades.

Tara also founded Create Common Good, a workforce development and food-based social enterprise providing job training to underserved populations, and co-founded both NightLight and Jitasa, two organizations dedicated to global social impact through financial innovation and anti-trafficking work. She was a founding Board member of indieDwell, an affordable housing B-corp focused on sustainable construction.

“Tara is a rare combination of entrepreneurial grit and strategic clarity,” said Derik Ellis, CEO of Vessel. “Her experience building fast-growth, mission-aligned organizations will be instrumental as we continue expanding our footprint across the country. She brings the kind of strategic leadership that will help Vessel stay grounded in our values while scaling with precision and purpose." – Derik Ellis, CEO of Vessel

As Chief Strategy Officer, Tara will focus on supporting Vessel’s national expansion, cultivating strategic relationships, building out corporate strategy including their advisory board, and ensuring organizational alignment across partners, platforms, and people. Her role will help accelerate Vessel’s work with public and private agencies to deliver data-driven insights and tools that empower manufacturing consulting teams to drive meaningful economic impact.

Tara’s primary passions outside of her family and community are playing hard outside, math and music, and building strong, mission-driven teams rallying around collective impact. 

It is in Tara’s nature to always be curious and generally on the move, and she loves traveling and adventuring around the world and experiencing live music with her two incredible kids, Tyson and Lucy.