About Echelon | Bios

The staff at Echelon Custom Homes is second to none, with only the most highly skilled and experienced craftsmen on our team.

Chris Schell

Chris grew up in the San Francisco area, but spent all his summers with his extended family in Lewes, Delaware. As a child, Chris developed discipline and a strong work ethic through his involvement in sports. Chris carried these lessons and confidence into academics and discovered his strength in math and science. After achieving perfect scores on all of his math and science standardized tests, Chris was admitted to MIT where he studied mechanical engineering and business. Chris remained active in both soccer and track while at MIT. He was a member of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol sprint team during his summers where he and his team were national champions 3 years in a row.

After graduating from MIT in the top 5% of his class, Mr. Schell took a job working with the legendary commodity trader, Marty Schwartz. Chris developed automated computer trading systems for the commodity markets based upon Mr. Schwartz's successful trading strategies. Using the knowledge gained and the software he developed while working with Mr. Schwartz, Chris became a registered commodity trading advisor (CTA) and started his own company.

He moved back to Delaware and ran his CTA firm successfully for several years before heading off to Harvard Business School. After receiving his MBA from Harvard, Chris and his family moved to Severna Park, MD where he continued his work as a CTA.

Several months after resuming his CTA work, Chris realized that although he enjoyed the intellectual challenge of trading the commodity markets, he was bothered by the fact that his work didn't create any value, it simply transferred value from one person to another.

After a period of soul searching, it became apparent to Chris that construction was the perfect profession for him. Chris had always been interested in construction, even though his education and background had prepared him for a career in finance. Chris and his twin brother, Preston, soon started Schell Brothers and Echelon Custom Homes quickly started a short time later. Both of these home building companies have been tremendous successes. In addition, together these companies have won a multitude of state and national marketing awards for their homes and communities. Chris is a proud board member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Delaware since 2005.

Chris recalls his decision to switch careers and become a builder as one of the best decisions on his life and believes he has truly found his calling. This decision has allowed him time to enjoy fatherhood and spending time with family and his many friends.