Howard Lutnick

Some Lesser Known Facts About Howard Lutnick

• Howard Lutnick was born into a Jewish family.

• In 1978, when he was a high school senior, his mother died of lymphoma.

• In the following year, Howard Lutnick joined Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

• During his first week in college, his father died when a nurse accidentally gave him 100 times the correct dose of chemotherapy drugs.

• Howard Lutnick and his two siblings became orphans and felt abandoned by their relatives, so they supported each other.

• When he was 18 years old, he had to hire a lawyer to settle his father’s debts.

• After his father’s death, the president and dean of Haverford College offered Howard Lutnick a complete scholarship.

• In 1983, he joined Cantor Fitzgerald, an American financial services firm, after completing his graduation.

• He formed a close relationship with the firm’s founder, Bernard Cantor, who became his mentor.

• Howard Lutnick was appointed as the president and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald in 1991 and promoted to the position of chairman in 1996.

• In 1999, he took eSpeed, an electronic trading subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald. This system used no brokers and helped the company to survive after the September 11 attacks, where 70% of their New York brokers were killed.

• During the September 11 attacks, Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices were on the 101-105th floors of the North Tower, above where the plane struck. Reportedly, none of the employees in the office survived during the attack. In total, 658 of Cantor’s 960 employees died, including Lutnick’s brother, Gary Lutnick.

  

• He was not in the office that morning as he went to drop his son, Kyle, on his first day of kindergarten.

• After the September 11 attacks, Howard Lutnick tried to reach the towers, but he was unsuccessful. He was hoping to find any surviving Cantor Fitzgerald employees.

• He survived the South Tower’s collapse by taking cover under a car nearby.

• Soon after the attacks, Howard Lutnick made several public appearances and became one of the most recognized figures from September 11.

• Cantor Fitzgerald lost two-thirds of its workforce, leaving the company in a helpless position, with many expecting it to shut down.

• Four days after the attacks, Howard Lutnick announced that he would stop the paychecks of nearly 700 employees who were missing or had died, which sparked controversy.

  

• He then appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live to handle criticism about stopping employee paychecks. He said,
  

  I lost everybody in the company… I don’t have any money to pay their salaries.”

• Howard Lutnick announced that families of Cantor employees who died in the attacks would receive 25% of Cantor’s future profits for five years and health insurance coverage for the next ten years.

• This support package amounted to over $100,000 for each family.

• Soon after the September 11 attacks, Howard Lutnick created the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund to support families of employees who died in the attacks.

• He donated $1 million to start the fund.

• The fund also helped families of 9/11 victims from 14 other companies, not only Cantor Fitzgerald.

• Lutnick’s sister, Edie Lutnick, a former labour lawyer, became the fund’s executive director and co-founder.

• The fund has distributed over $180 million to Cantor employees’ families and $280 million to others in need.

• After that, the fund expanded to help victims of natural disasters and other hardships.

  

• In 2004, Howard Lutnick and Lee M. Amaitis divided Cantor Fitzgerald into two operations. Cantor Fitzgerald focused on stock and bond trading, and BGC Partners handled broker-driven trading. Cantor then borrowed $400 million for the first time to fund BGC’s growth.

• Every year on September 11 (or the nearest business day if it’s a weekend), Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners host a Global Charity Day event.

• On this day, they donate 100% of the day’s revenue to charity.

• Since 2005, these events have raised about $113 million.

• During these events, celebrities, sports stars, and other public figures participate by speaking with clients on the trading floors.

• Some of the notable participants include George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Lady Gaga, Venus Williams, Eli Manning, Susan Sarandon, and Prince Harry.

• Prince Harry holds the record for the largest single trade made during a Global Charity Day event.

• In 2008, he led a $1.3 billion merger of BGC Partners and eSpeed. Howard Lutnick took the video platform Rumble public through a SPAC deal.

• In 2012, Howard Lutnick joined the Haverford College Board of Managers after serving six years as vice-chair.

• He gave five student scholarships at Haverford College.

  

• Howard Lutnick has funded several campus facilities including Cantor Fitzgerald Art Gallery, Douglas B. Gardner ’83 Integrated Athletic Center, Gary Lutnick Tennis & Track Center, and Lutnick Library.

• He has donated $65 million to the Haverford College.

• After Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey in October 2012, Howard Lutnick donated $10 million to help affected families.

• Cantor Fitzgerald adopted 19 schools in the hardest-hit areas.

• Nearly 10,000 families received $1,000 debit cards in neighbourhoods like Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Staten Island, and New Jersey.

• During the initiative, Senator Charles Schumer and other public figures joined Lutnick at several schools.

• Howard Lutnick, his wife, Allison, sister, Edie, and a team of volunteers and employees handed out debit cards to parents, starting at Public School 256 in Far Rockaway.

• After the 2013 Moore tornado, which caused over $2 billion in damage and killed dozens, Howard Lutnick donated $2 million from his companies and the Cantor Relief Fund to support victims.

• On 17 May 2019, Howard Lutnick hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump at his Manhattan home, raising about $5 million.

  

• In 2024, his firm, BGC Group, began planning to launch the FMX Futures Exchange. This venture attracted investors like Morgan Stanley, Tower Research Capital, and Wells Fargo.

• In June 2024, Howard Lutnick hosted the United Hatzalah Gala at Cipriani Downtown, raising over $10 million.

• In 2024, he appeared on the podcast Nothing Left Unsaid with Tim Green, where he shared his experiences during and after the 9/11 attacks, his leadership at Cantor Fitzgerald, and his thoughts on strength and rebuilding after tragedies.

• On 2 August 2024, Howard Lutnick hosted another fundraiser for Trump in an air-conditioned tent at his Bridgehampton, New York home.

• Two weeks later, Trump appointed Lutnick and Linda McMahon as co-chairs of his 2024 presidential team.

• On 27 October 2024, Howard Lutnick spoke at a Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, praising the U.S. economy in 1900, referencing its lack of income tax and high tariffs.

  

• He is a supporter of broad tariff policies.

• In October 2024, Howard Lutnick supported Robert Kennedy Jr.’s claim that vaccines could cause autism in children.

• On 19 November 2024, president-elect Donald Trump announced him as his nominee for secretary of commerce.

• Howard Lutnick is often invited by various news channels at their live shows as a guest.