The Echelon Capital team has 25 years of global business experience.

Management Team

Gene Berg is the Managing Partner of Echelon Capital. Prior to founding the group, Gene acquired several companies and served as the CEO. Before acquiring his own companies, Gene held various executive positions including President and Chief Operating Officer of Bergstrom Inc., a leading manufacturer to the commercial vehicle industry, and General Manager of SSI Technologies. Both Bergstrom and SSI became industry leaders during his tenure. Gene holds both a BS in Engineering and MS in Manufacturing Systems/Business, graduating with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a Rotary Club Scholar and an IBM Honorary Fellow

William Guo is a Partner at Echelon Capital. William has an extensive background in both advanced technical engineering and management. Before joining the Echelon team, he was Vice President and Managing Director for Bergstrom China. Prior to his time at Bergstrom, William was Vice Director for the China Rehabilitation Research Center, worked for the University of Kentucky as a Research Associate and worked for a year at John Crane, Inc. as an Engineer in the Research and Development Department. William holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Beijing University of Astor & Aero, MBA from the University of New Jersey – Rutgers, and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Yan Shan University. William has published over 30 papers in ASME Journals, IEEE Journals and International Conferences and holds five patents.

Matt Zakaras is a Partner at Echelon Capital. Matt is responsible for implementing Echelon’s investment strategy, including analyzing and structuring complex investments, sourcing, due diligence and financing. He also takes an active role in turnaround management, including warehousing and distribution strategy, supplier management, labor and benefit issues and organization integration. He began his career with the Chicago-based law firm of Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC. As a Partner at Levenfeld Pearlstein, Matt focused primarily on business transactions, general corporate representation and securities offerings. Matt holds a BA from Marquette University and a JD from the DePaul University School of Law (Law Review, Sullivan Fellow).

Chelsea W. Berg is the Director of Real Estate for Echelon Capital. Chelsea oversees Echelon’s real estate portfolio of 1.5 million square feet of industrial, commercial, and manufacturing properties. She is responsible for the supervision of all property, facility, and account managers for all properties and takes an active role in all property acquisitions and sales. Chelsea joined Echelon first in 2008 as an analyst but left to start her own manufacturing company based in e-commerce and rejoined Echelon in 2014 in her current Director role. She holds a BA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.