Russell Weaver
Board Member
Russell Weaver, a native of Fort Lauderdale, has played a pivotal role in connecting Florida, Japan and Sister Cities programs for over three decades. These connections have spanned across various domains including business, sports, and cultural initiatives.
In addition to his career as a commercial Realtor with Weaver - Morrison Commercial Real Estate, Mr. Weaver serves as Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International’s president and the Vice Chairman of the Miami-Kagoshima Sister Cities Committee.
During Mr. Weaver’s presidency, Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International won Sister Cities International’s 2022 Award for Innovation in Business, Trade and Professional Exchange. Furthermore, he helped establish Fort Lauderdale’s first Asian sister city with Kaohsiung, Taiwan and revitalized the Fort Lauderdale – Medellin, Colombia Sister City relationship. The highlight of his volunteer work was cohosting the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first naval visit to Port Everglades (Broward County / Fort Lauderdale) in 2017.
Before his career as a commercial Realtor, Mr. Weaver engaged in the marketing and exporting of fresh citrus products to Japan and Europe. He now serves on the Executive Board of the Brazilian Business Group and has twice served as the Chairman of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance’s International Committee.
Mr. Weaver contributed to reestablishing the alliance between the International Swimming Hall of Fame Museum in Fort Lauderdale and the Japanese Swimming Federation based in Tokyo, Japan. This resulted in the personal participation of distinguished Japanese Olympians, such as Mr. Kosuke Kitajima, Mr. Daichi Suzuki and Ms. Miho Takeda in the induction ceremonies in Fort Lauderdale.
Mr. Weaver is an alumnus of the George Washington University in Washington, DC, where he earned a Bachelor of the Arts in East Asian Studies and lettered in swimming for three years. He studied at Kwansei Gakuin University (関西学院大学) in Nishinomiya, Japan his junior year. His sister cities missions have taken him to Haiti, Colombia, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.