Howard Lutnick Bio
Howard William Lutnick (born July 14, 1961) is an American businessman and government official who has served as the 41st United States Secretary of Commerce since February 2025. He first became a nationally recognized figure as the chief executive and later chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services firm he rebuilt after the September 11, 2001 attacks killed 658 of its employees, including his brother. A graduate of Haverford College, Lutnick built electronic trading platforms and expanded the firm into new markets. Originally a lifelong Democrat, he registered as a Republican and became a major fundraiser for President Donald Trump before being nominated to lead the Department of Commerce.
Early Life and Background
Early Life and Background
Howard William Lutnick was born on July 14, 1961, on Long Island, New York, and raised in the hamlet of Jericho. He was the second son of Solomon Lutnick, a professor of history at Queens College at the City University of New York, and Jane (née Lieberman) Lutnick, a painter and sculptor who taught at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Lutnick is of Jewish descent.
His childhood changed dramatically during his junior year at Jericho High School. In February 1978, his mother died of lymphoma, and in his first week of classes at Haverford College, his father died of a chemotherapy drug overdose while being treated for colon cancer that had spread to his lungs. The president of Haverford College, Robert Stevens, offered to waive his tuition. Lutnick went on to graduate from Haverford in 1983 with a degree in economics.
Path to US Politics
Lutnick’s path into public life began on Wall Street rather than in elected office. After college he joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 as a protégé of the firm’s founder, B. Gerald Cantor, eventually rising to chief executive, president, and later chairman. For most of his career he stayed out of partisan politics, donating as a Democrat in earlier cycles, including to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and to Senate candidate Kamala Harris.
He later described himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal and said he left the Democratic Party because he felt it had shifted further to the political left. In May 2019, The New York Times reported that Lutnick had hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump that raised more than US$5 million, and he went on to become one of Trump’s most active financial backers. In August 2024 he was named co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team overseeing personnel, and on November 19, 2024, Trump selected him as his nominee for Secretary of Commerce.
Howard Lutnick Career
Early Career (1983–1991)
After graduating from Haverford, Lutnick worked as a broker at Noonan, Astley & Pierce on the United States dollar–Japanese yen exchange, where he met B. Gerald Cantor. In 1983, Cantor hired Lutnick at his eponymous firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, encouraged by Rod Fisher, a partner at the firm and Cantor’s nephew. Within about eighteen months, Lutnick was running a division that managed Cantor’s personal investments and had become one of the firm’s most profitable leaders. By December 1990, he had been named Cantor’s successor in the event of his death, and in 1991 he became the firm’s chief executive and president.
Cantor Fitzgerald Leadership (1991–2001)
Lutnick took over Cantor Fitzgerald as technology began reshaping financial markets. He pushed the firm into electronic trading, investing roughly US$250 million to develop eSpeed, an electronic trading platform that launched in March 1999. By September 2001, eSpeed ran about four dozen marketplaces, including TradeSpark, an exchange for natural gas and electricity that saw a surge in activity after the Enron scandal. He also diversified the firm, opening a brokerage business in Europe and launching the Cantor Exchange.
By September 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald had about 960 employees in New York City, and the firm had become a major force in Treasury securities trading. Lutnick had also been working for years to formalize his control of the firm, reaching a partnership settlement with the Cantor family in May 1996 after a contentious legal battle. Following the death of B. Gerald Cantor in July 1996, Lutnick was named chairman.
September 11 and Rebuilding (2001–2008)
The September 11, 2001 attacks transformed Lutnick’s career and public profile. Cantor Fitzgerald was headquartered in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, just above where American Airlines Flight 11 crashed. All 658 of the firm’s New York employees who were in the office that day died, including Lutnick’s brother, Gary. Lutnick himself had taken his son to kindergarten and was not in the building.
His handling of the aftermath drew both praise and criticism. He appeared in widely publicized interviews with Connie Chung on ABC News, attended roughly twenty funerals a day for more than a month, and worked with the American Red Cross to secure aid for victims’ families. At the same time, he faced criticism from employees’ families for the firm’s refusal to continue paying salaries owed to the deceased workers. Cantor Fitzgerald’s London and New Jersey operations allowed eSpeed to keep trading, and by December 2002 the firm had 750 employees in New York. In August 2004, the firm spun off its voice brokerage business into BGC Partners.
Commerce Secretary Era (2025–Present)
After serving as a senior Wall Street executive for more than three decades, Lutnick was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 18, 2025, in a 51–45 vote as Secretary of Commerce and was sworn in on February 21, 2025. As commerce secretary he has supported the second Trump tariffs, helped direct negotiations with foreign leaders after Trump initiated a trade war with Canada and Mexico, and pushed for what he describes as reciprocal tariffs on trading partners. In early 2025 he traveled with United States trade representative nominee Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council chairman Kevin Hassett to meet Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner for trade and economic security.
His tenure has also included controversy. In March 2025 he told Meet the Press there was no chance of a recession because of the Trump administration’s economic policies and later said the tariffs would be worth it even if they led to a recession. He also encouraged Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock, comments that were flagged as possible federal ethics violations, and drew bipartisan criticism for suggesting that stopping Social Security payments was a useful way to identify fraud. In April 2025, he required that all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contracts over US$100,000 receive his personal approval, a policy that created a bottleneck in routine maintenance and operations.
Notable Events and Milestones
Lutnick’s career-defining moment came on September 11, 2001, when Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees in a single attack. He later led the firm through a difficult rebuild, was named to the board of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation in January 2006, and emerged as one of Wall Street’s most recognizable executives. In 2025, Time magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people.
Howard Lutnick Awards
Lutnick has been recognized with awards for both his public service and his role in global business. He is a recipient of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, and in 2025 Time listed him among the 100 most influential people in the world.
Howard Lutnick Family
Family Background and Lineage
Howard William Lutnick was the second son of Solomon Lutnick, a Queens College history professor, and Jane (née Lieberman) Lutnick, a painter and sculptor who taught at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Both parents died of cancer while he was a teenager. His brother, Gary Lutnick, was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks while working at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center. Lutnick has since funded the Gary Lutnick Tennis & Track Center at Haverford College in his brother’s memory.
Personal Life
In December 1994, Lutnick married Allison Lambert, a senior associate at the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker. The couple has four children. In February 2025, Allison Lutnick was appointed a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after President Donald Trump named himself chairman of the center. The family has long been based in New York City, with additional residences in Bridgehampton, New York, and Washington, D.C.