Richard S. Lukaj

The inspirational story of a Wall Street investment banker with a passion for advocacy, philanthropy, community and leadership, making a difference at home and abroad.

Like many others of the day, Richard Lukaj was born in a refugee camp in Italy (his family was fleeing economic and ethnic strife in former Yugoslavia) and immigrated to New York with his parents in the early ’70s, where they settled in the gritty Lower East Side of Manhattan. Lukaj and his family later moved to Brooklyn as they sought a safer environment and safer schools. A product of the NYC public school system growing up on the Red Hook /Park Slope border, Mr. Lukaj was the valedictorian of his middle school before attending Brooklyn Tech High School, where he also graduated with highest honors.

After BTHS, Lukaj attended New York University’s business school and graduated to a distinguished Wall Street career, where he has since executed hundreds of corporate finance transactions totaling well over $100 billion of value all over the world.