Russell Noles

Russell Noles
Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU)

Noles is a business strategist, Certified Public Accountant and executive who has spent more than 30 years in the telecommunications and financial-services industries. As chief operations officer for Nuveen, a wholly owned subsidiary of TIAA that Noles helped acquire in 2014, he helps oversee nearly $1 trillion in assets. He previously held senior leadership positions with Qwest Communications and the St. Paul Cos.

Noles is also an MSU Denver graduate (’81) who selected the University because of its Cooperative Education program and an accounting scholarship as an accounting student trainee at Lowry Air Force Base, which paid for tuition, books and fees the first year and provided a job that helped fund his tuition in subsequent semesters. He went on to earn an MBA in finance from the University of Denver.

After graduation, Noles spent more than 17 years in nine jobs in the telecommunications industry before a move to a Minneapolis property-and-casualty firm brought him the financial-service expertise that caught TIAA’s attention. He quickly moved through the ranks at TIAA, from internal audit to acting chief financial officer, product development and management, corporate strategy and development and his current role as COO for Nuveen.