Timothy Mayopoulos described Heather Russell as “a human Champagne cork in five-inch heels” through their exchange of vows Nov. 21 at the bride’s residence in Bronxville, N.Y.
“She’s effervescent,” stated Mr. Mayopoulos, 61, the president of Blend, a financial companies technology corporation in San Francisco.
“She’s also lovely and she’s fantastic and she’s proficient,” he reported, likely on about Ms. Russell, 49, the chief authorized officer and company secretary of TransUnion, a global data and insights enterprise based in Chicago.
The two satisfied in Charlotte in 2006 when Ms. Russell joined the 1,000-member lawful division at Bank of America, which was managed by Mr. Mayopoulos. He stated he briefly interviewed her, and saw her only a handful of times till the working day he still left the firm in 2008.
A few yrs later, Ms. Russell still left the firm, but held in touch with Mr. Mayopoulos on events via social media. Any time function took them to the same city, which she mentioned was about as soon as a year, they would satisfy for drinks.
On just one of these occasions, in the fall of 2015, Mr. Mayopoulos, who was then the chief government of Fannie Mae in Washington, questioned Ms. Russell the type of question he experienced under no circumstances questioned her right before: “How’s your spouse and children?”
“We experienced never ever genuinely been buddies,” Ms. Russell said. “We had just form of held up this experienced community matter, and then one particular working day, that day, for the incredibly initial time, Tim questioned me about my loved ones.”
When she advised him that she was obtaining divorced, he unveiled that he was also divorcing. Every single experienced two youngsters, a boy and a lady, and suddenly sufficient in popular on which to foundation a extended-distance friendship that turned a romantic corner in July 2016.
That thirty day period, Ms. Russell was dwelling in New York and commuting to her job as main lawful officer at the Cincinnati-based mostly Fifth 3rd Lender when she went to the bank’s compliance office to state for the document that she was in a marriage with Mr. Mayopoulos.
As a end result, Ms. Russell was terminated and her tale was in newspapers about the region, such as The Wall Road Journal and The Charlotte Observer.
“I was utterly stunned and bewildered,” Ms. Russell explained. “I was in a partnership with a person else at another firm. There was nothing inappropriate in any regard, and absolutely no motive for the termination.” She did not battle the termination and, while she no for a longer period experienced that task, she did have Mr. Mayopoulos. (He experienced also claimed his romantic relationship with Ms. Russell to Fannie Mae’s compliance office. He was not fired from his position, and departed the enterprise two several years afterwards for Blend.)
The couple received engaged more than supper in November 2019 at a restaurant in Lower Manhattan.
“We have so lots of factors in widespread, which includes a style in obscure new music,” Mr. Mayopoulos reported.
1 of their preferred tracks is by the indie band, the Damnwells identified as, “I Will Maintain the Poor Things from You.”
“It’s a tune about fans retaining their hearts protected from the environment,” Mr. Mayopoulos reported.
