My name is Thomas Russell. I’m a local Cardiff boy in my late 20s, and my entrepreneurial side started young. Between 2010 and 2016, I was trading small boats and selling locally caught fish to local restaurants — always looking for ways to graft and make something happen.

 

In 2016, I began an apprenticeship with Cardiff Council, maintaining some of the city’s most prestigious gardens, including the grounds around City Hall and National Museum Cardiff. Even then, I was already taking on my own jobs, often daydreaming about running a big team and building a business of my own.

 

Outside council hours, I worked long evenings until 9pm in the summer, and spent Saturdays and Sundays completing private landscaping and gardening jobs. It wasn’t long before I realised I was earning more on the weekends than I was all week in the apprenticeship — so I backed myself and went fully self-employed.

 

From there, one job led to another, and soon I was running full landscaping projects with a team of up to nine men, all while steadily building my property portfolio.

 

Today that portfolio has grown to over £1m AUM, including:

• Flips in the Welsh Valleys

• Commercial-to-residential conversions in Bristol

• Development projects in Cardiff

• Fire-damaged refurbishments

• West Wales apartment renovations — featured on Homes Under the Hammer

 

Alongside this, I’ve built a multi-million-pound pipeline, raised significant finance, and worked closely with investors, brokers, and contractors across the Bristol & Wales.

 

Everything I’ve learned shows me that progress comes from community, collaboration, and surrounding yourself with the right people — and that’s exactly why I created Morlan for 2026 and beyond.