Drake Behrakis has spent his life showing up. As president of Marwick Associates, chairman of the National Hellenic Society, an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and a fixture in some of the most important Greek-American institutions in the country, he is one of those people who doesn't just lend his name to things. He rolls up his sleeves.

In this conversation, Drake sits down with Eraklis Diamataris to talk about where it all began. His grandfather came over from the Peloponnese in the 1890s and worked the American railroads. His father George built Muro Pharmaceuticals from scratch, earned the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and gave back in ways that left the family name on some of the most significant Hellenic institutions in America, including the George D. and Margo Behrakis collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, one of the world's great collections of Greek, Roman and Byzantine art.

Drake talks honestly about his own path, from Gillette to his father's pharmaceutical company to building a commercial real estate portfolio in New England and beyond, and about what it took to learn patience in an industry that doesn't reward the impatient. He also gets real about the limits of saying yes to everything, the moment he realized he was on too many boards, and why knowing when to step back is its own kind of service.

And then there's the question that never goes away: how do you bring the next generation in without forcing them? Drake has three kids in their twenties who go to Greece every summer and stay connected to who they are, each in their own way. His answer is worth hearing.

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