Northeastern graduate brings high-quality, ethically sourced coffee to the Oakland campus

Northeastern graduate brings high-quality, ethically sourced coffee to the Oakland campus

From two espresso carts to 200 employees, Helen Russell is a trailblazer. The co-founder of Equator Coffees shares how Northeastern's experiential learning set her on the entrepreneurial path.

A good cup of coffee tells a story, says Helen Russell, co-founder and executive president of Equator Coffees, a Northern California specialty coffee roaster.

“I want a clean cup with distinct flavors that has been well brewed,” he says. “That's the basis for drinking coffee these days.”

Another aspect that Russell, who graduated from Northeastern in 1988, thinks about when tasting coffee is how much coffee farmers were paid for their work.

“If I suspect that the people who grew that coffee aren't making a living, then that cup of coffee doesn't taste good anymore,” he says. “Most coffee in the world is bought for criminally low prices.”

For nearly 30 years, Equator has focused on quality, sustainability and social responsibility. The business that started with two outdoor espresso carts and transitioned into roasting its own coffee for wholesale customers now has nearly a dozen coffee shops in California, produces more than a million pounds of coffee a year, and connects consumers with coffee growers around the world.

This fall, Equator is bringing its delicious, ethical coffee to the Tea Shop on Northeastern's Oakland campus.

“We're a great fit for Northeastern because we're proving that business can be a force for good,” says Russell.

Knowing the type of students that attend Northeastern, he says the conscientious Huskies will not tolerate the goods that come from an exploitative situation.

Russell grew up in the greater Boston area. She always wanted to own her own business, she says, unlike her parents who held steady management positions at the US Postal Service and New England Telephone Co.

“I thought being your own boss was the greatest achievement in life,” says Russell. “My parents thought I was wrong to pursue entrepreneurship instead of getting a job right out of high school.”

He went to college for a year, then worked for a few years at New England Telephone Co., but eventually learned about Northeastern from a friend. Russell enrolled in the university's business school to study finance, marketing and business administration. She put herself through college by bartending three to four nights a week.

Russell was particularly interested in collaborative opportunities.

“That real-life experience was vital,” he says.

While at Northeastern, Russell gained the knowledge of what jobs she didn't want to do — read “office jobs” — and what kind of company she wanted to own and run. He also had the opportunity to do a co-op in London for a semester.

“The experience of alternating periods of academic coursework with periods of employment suited my personality and the way I learn hands-on,” says Russell. “I learned a lot from Northeastern.”

The work ethic she got from both her parents and her time at Northeastern, she says, helped her grow her own company.

Russell moved to California in 1989 after meeting her ambitious and creative partner, Brooke McDonnell, while vacationing in Palm Springs. While visiting the Pacific Northwest, they saw a bustling coffee scene in Portland with coffee carts and busy cafes on every corner.

“We saw how there was a lot more coffee than down in the Bay Area and how much better the coffee was,” Russell says.

They decided that the Bay Area, where they lived, was ripe for an influx of specialty coffee shops. They wrote a business plan, bought two espresso carts, and secured two locations in San Francisco and Oakland outside of corporate office buildings.

“We were running them [ourselves] and getting up at 4:30 in the morning,” Russell says. “We've learned a lot.”

McDonnell became interested in roasting the coffee herself because their suppliers didn't tell them much about the origin of the product other than a general region, such as Central America or East Africa.

“The coffee wasn't as good as we knew it could be,” says Russell. “We knew we could do better at every level.”