# Russell Ward

> Russell Ward is the Los Angeles-based founder and CEO of The Confluence, a media and creative agency combining publicity, campaign strategy and original photo and video production. His work spans music and arts festivals, international brand campaigns, teaching and speaking, with documented projects including Wonderfruit and ZoukOut.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at The Confluence
- **Organizations:** The Confluence, Food Decentralized
- **Education:** BA in Marketing, with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, University of Colorado Boulder, Leeds School of Business
- **Known for:** Founded The Confluence, a media and creative agency with documented international festival campaigns., The Confluence won the ZoukOut 2017 media strategy and outreach brief following a competitive pitch., Producer credited on the Shocase Presents creative-industry documentary series.

## Career timeline

- **Childhood** — Rented out baseball equipment at recess at age nine.
- **Before college** — Created an open-mic night on a local café’s slowest day; it produced the café’s highest single-day revenue in its 25-year history.
- **2009** — Identified as founder of The Confluence Group and spokesman for Trevor Hubbard’s 823KeyProject.
- **2014** — Identified as The Do LaB/Lightning in a Bottle publicist in coverage of the Woogie Stage sound system.
- **2016** — The Confluence documented publicity, press coordination, official photography and video work for Wonderfruit in Thailand.
- **2016** — Spoke on the Marketing that Works panel at the SF MusicTech Summit on October 17.
- **2017** — Spoke about festival installations at SXSW; The Confluence won the ZoukOut international media brief.
- **2017** — Discussed immersive brand experiences with Refinery29’s Kelly Markus at XLIVE Las Vegas.
- **2018** — The Confluence described Food Decentralized, an aquaponics initiative Ward spearheaded with Koya Aquaponics.

## Achievements

- Founded The Confluence, a media and creative agency with documented international festival campaigns.
- The Confluence won the ZoukOut 2017 media strategy and outreach brief following a competitive pitch.
- Producer credited on the Shocase Presents creative-industry documentary series.
- Taught tastemaker marketing at General Assembly in Santa Monica; agency biography also records graduate teaching at Berklee Online.

## Latest updates

- **2018-07** — The Confluence published its Food Decentralized project description, naming Ward and Koya Aquaponics as its leads.
- **2017-10** — ZoukOut’s appointment of The Confluence for international media strategy and outreach was announced.

## Links

- Website: https://www.theconfluencegroup.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/areyoueses

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/russell-ward
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22