As Managing Director at ECA Partners, Burton leads the firm’s Private Equity Value Creation Practice. He specializes in COO executive search for PE-backed companies, placing operations leaders who drive scale, margin expansion, and plant-to-enterprise excellence. A former manufacturing operator and business owner, Burt combines practical P&L experience with strategic insight from Oliver Wyman’s PE Operations practice. Earlier, he was an engineer at Boeing and General Dynamics. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating summa cum laude.

As Senior Director at ECA Partners, Dan Baker leads the firm’s COO Practice, specializing in COO executive search for private equity–backed companies. He partners with sponsors and boards to place operations leaders who drive EBITDA, scale multi-site footprints, professionalize teams, and build data-driven operating systems. A leader in ECA’s Value Creation Practice with extensive portfolio operations exposure at the fund level, Dan holds degrees in Economics from Cambridge, Law from Duke, and a PhD from UC Berkeley, and is a licensed attorney in Washington State.

Robert (Robby) is a Senior Director at ECA Partners and co-leads the firm’s CTO/Transformation Leader Center of Excellence. He partners with private-equity and corporate clients to recruit COOs and operations executives who drive scale, margin expansion, and process excellence across industrials, manufacturing, and business services. With nearly a decade of executive search experience and an early career in consulting, Robby brings a strong understanding of complex operating environments. He holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, an MA from George Washington University, and a BS from Georgetown University.