OHUG was the 19th fastest-growing company in the Deloitte Fast 50 last year, recording 390 per cent growth. It is now a multimillion-dollar company, says Russell, employing five people, and has a solid plan for more rapid growth.
Russell and Rigby took over the company only five years ago and theirs is a considerable achievement given the barriers to entry to the industry.
The electricity sector is not a closed shop, she says, but is capital-intensive and dominated by large, well-established players, most with multinational connections.
On the plus side, she and Rigby "had good reputations in the industry, and if anyone was going to succeed, it was probably going to be us".
Even so, "most people thought, 'They're a little bit crazy but they just might just pull it off"'.
As one of the few women in her class at the US Naval Academy, Russell is used to adversity.
When she quit to join South Power (now Orion), it was also full of blokes, particularly the top ranks. Most of the few women who did work there were in administrative positions.
Russell hopes to rectify that gender imbalance through her work with ESITO, the electricity supply training organisation.
Russell serves on the ESITO board, which has instituted a "women in power" project - its pilot programme has seen 11 women employed by two electricity companies.
Female representation in the technical trades is an important goal, says Russell.
"We want to get to a place where there are enough women throughout the industry that it becomes attractive for other women to join the industry," she says.
"When a young woman looks at the [electricity] industry they say, 'That's just a bunch of guys.' But when they see women doing that they say, 'I can do that."'
Perhaps a few of them will also see Russell, director of a successful start-up company, as an inspiration.
Russell cut her teeth in the 1990s: "I was there for all the deregulation and amalgamation and all of the pain that went with that."
She won't be drawn on the political wisdom of the extensive industry restructuring, but does say the consumer got the rough end of the stick, given "the actual cost of putting things in the ground has got cheaper".
"The deregulation was envisioned to consolidate the number of utilities and bring corresponding efficiencies, but we haven't seen that to date."
OHUG - an appropriation of the industry acronym for "overhead, underground" - was established by Far North network company Top Energy.
But it quickly decided that the supply company did not fit its strategic plan. So Rigby, a Top Energy employee, rang Russell to see if she was interested in buying the company. "I said, 'Well, if we don't do it now we're never going to do it."'
There was a gap in the market, which was dominated by large companies dealing in only a few global brands.
Russell credits Rigby for his research in bringing new products and arguably more choice to the electricity market.
For instance, in building overhead lines "there really have been only two main options for porcelain insulators", she says. "Now we've come along and offered a third option, which increases the diversity."
Initial progress was slow, but the past two years has seen breakneck growth, as evidenced by the company's Fast 50 placing.
"We followed good business practice but we were also right - it was a good time for the industry, which wanted to see some other options," says Russell.
"We're still probably the smallest player in the sandpits we play in but, yes, we will grow rapidly.
"There's room to move and still be a niche operator in this market. We want to be of a size that gives us the return we want but still be small enough to be hands-on with our customers, because that's what we enjoy."
