Lukas is Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Fund with responsibility for managing all operations of a longstanding family foundation. He was previously vice president of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation where he developed strategy and grants to address the climate crisis, empower low-income New York City Communities, and defend human rights. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and currently serves on the advisory board of the Center for Climate and Security and the steering committee of the Climate & Energy Funders Group. He is also a board member of Protect Our Winters.

From 2002-06, Lukas managed grant-making to promote national and international security at the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation including arms control and track two diplomacy grants in Russia and China. Lukas began his career doing policy research and field work for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Crisis Group and Oxfam UK/I. From 2000-01, he served on the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. State Department as speechwriter for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Lukas lives in Montclair, New Jersey where he is also a trustee of Lulu’s Fund, created in his daughter’s name to provide universal access to early childhood education.