Leopardo SVP Rick DuPraw's path to real estate starts like any other. He was touring with a rockabilly band after graduation, and . . .well, maybe it's a bit different than yours. He started as a laborer during the early Leopardo years, as its fourth employee. Now, he's the head of the Interiors group, and oversaw more than 200 projects in the CBD in 2008. Some of his faves: building a life-size fuselage for Aircell, which makes technology to use laptops on airplanes; and, the giant bladder-shaped lunchroom  he built for Abelson-Taylor, a pharma marketing company.

We snapped him yesterday with project estimator Marlene Van Kuiken  and VP Mark Fenton. Rick is active in Leopardo's company band Liquidated Damages, and along with architect band SPAKL, developer band Dr. Bombay, and broker band Missing Ted, they headline Reach Social's City of Hope fundraiser every year. Back to business: Leopardo has grown from $60m in 1997 to more than $300m today. (You can see Liquidated Damages on Leopardo's YouTube Channel here.