Marine reservist Brian Lukacz was called to active duty in 2003 and for the next two years he set aside his real estate career. He spent 13 months in Iraq flying combat missions and returned — with “all 10 fingers and all 10 toes” — to GVA IPC as a vice president. His specialty is leasing and sales of office space in UTC, Sorrento Mesa and Del Mar Heights.

The experience in Iraq left him with gratitude for life and a desire to give back. “I hadn’t done much in volunteer work before,” he says. “It’s not all about me anymore.” He became a mentor for the Preuss School, a charter school on the UCSD campus for disadvantaged children.

“These are really, really smart kids,” he says. “But these kids’ families don’t have the means for a private school. They also come from families that may not be educated and so the program exposes them to mentors in the community.”

Lukacz is a “hobbyist triathlete.” For the fourth year he will participate in the Challenged Athletes Foundation’s San Diego Triathlon Challenge, a half-Ironman distance event that raises funds for challenged athletes. Lukacz is working with the foundation’s new program, Operation Rebound, which provides post-rehabilitation support and mentoring to American veterans who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with permanent physical injuries. Lukacz married his college sweetheart, Emily, in 1996. They have two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Jake and Elwood.