For Grigory Pekarsky, 34, entrepreneurial spirit was rooted in his family’s exodus from Russia in 1985. His family immigrated to the United States with eight suitcases and $500. They settled in the Detroit area, and Pekarsky dreamed of a career in veterinary medicine. But in his junior year in college, he decided business—not medicine—was his calling. “I needed to find something where my success relied heavily on my work ethic and drive,” he says. A position at a Chicago real estate company fit the bill, he says. Today, Pekarsky owns a company that targets Chicago’s robust rental market. “I focus my agents on the effective execution of daily activities that, over an extended period of time, yield great results,” he says. He has also achieved great results at the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, where he created a mentoring program for the Young Professionals Network and helped to develop a leasing course for agents.
