David C. Eckel was born in Buffalo, New York, graduated from Cornell University, and received an MBA degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Following graduation, David was an officer in the United States Army and was a member of the All-Army Track and Field Team. He received an honorable discharge as a Captain.

Prior to entering the real estate industry, David was a senior commercial lending officer at Marine Midland Bank (Western New York), specializing in secured financing, handling many corporate transactions in New York State.

David joined the real estate brokerage firm of Stovroff & Herman, Inc. (recently renamed Realty USA) as Vice President in the mid 1970's became an owner in the early 1980's and its President in 1987. Stovroff & Herman, Inc. under his direction, grew quickly, and continues under new ownership to be the leader in New York State, and recently ranked as the sixth largest independent real estate firm in the United States. While at Stovroff & Herman, in addition to being President, David specialized in Commercial Real Estate, and handled many transactions for national and international companies such as Central Scientific, American Allsafe, Verity Corporation, HSBC Bank, Goldome, Benderson Development, M & T Bank, etc. Under his direction, his company expanded to over 20 offices, 750+ agents, and was the first United States Company to open a real estate office in Toronto, Ontario.

In the mid-1990's, David relocated to Florida, purchasing Wagner Realty (founded in 1939) which had one office and several agents at the time of acquisition. During the past ten years, Wagner has grown from one to ten offices, with 250 agents and staff. The company is a full service real estate company, including an excellent reputation for commercial real estate transactions, representing many clients, including Eckerd's, Walgreen's, Benderson Development, Richmond American, Pulte Homes, Taylor Woodrow Communities, Gevity, WCI Communities etc.

Wagner is a leader in our area, enjoying a quality reputation. As an example Wagner has been voted "The Best Real Estate Company" by The Herald's Readers Preference Award for eleven years in a row. David is on the Board of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce; a trustee of its Economic Development Council; board member for Saint Stephens Episcopal School; a runner up for Entrepreneur of the Year for Manatee/Sarasota Counties, and named as one of the top five commercial brokers in the area by the Gulf Coast Business Review.