Howard Lutnick

Howard William Lutnick (born July 14, 1961) is an American billionaire businessman and tycoon who has served as the 41st United States secretary of commerce since February 2025.
In 1983, Lutnick was hired at Cantor Fitzgerald under the mentorship of the firm's founder, B. Gerald Cantor. In 1990, Lutnick became president and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald. After a medical incident involving Cantor in 1995, he entered into a legal dispute with Cantor's wife, Iris, over Cantor's succession plans. Lutnick was appointed chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald after Cantor's death in 1996. He invested significantly in technology, establishing an electronic trading platform known as eSpeed. In the September 11 attacks, Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees, including Howard's brother, Gary.
Lutnick was a fundraiser for Donald Trump's 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns, as well as a vocal proponent of Trump's proposal to implement broad tariffs. In August 2024, he was named as the co-chair of Donald Trump's presidential transition. President-elect Trump named Lutnick as his nominee for secretary of commerce in November. A Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing for Lutnick was held in January 2025, and he was confirmed by the Senate in February. In the 2025 World's Billionaires List, Forbes estimated Lutnick net worth at US$3.2 billion, making him the 1,141st richest person in the world.
Howard William Lutnick was born on July 14, 1961, on Long Island, New York. He was the second son of Solomon and Jane (née Lieberman) Lutnick. Solomon was a professor of history at Queens College, City University of New York, while Jane was a painter and sculptor who taught at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Lutnick is of Jewish descent. He was raised in Jericho, New York, and attended Jericho High School. In February 1978, during Lutnick's junior year, Jane died of lymphoma. Lutnick attended Haverford College as a Division III tennis recruit. In his first week of classes, Solomon died of a chemotherapy drug overdose, having suffered colon cancer that had metastasized to his lungs. Robert Stevens, the president of Haverford College, offered to waive his fees to the university. At Haverford, Lutnick became captain of the tennis team. He graduated in 1983 with a degree in economics.
After graduating, Lutnick worked at Noonan, Astley & Pierce as a broker for the United States dollar–Japanese yen exchange, where he met B. Gerald Cantor. In 1983, Cantor took Lutnick as his protégé and hired him at his eponymous firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, encouraged by Rod Fisher, a partner at the firm and Cantor's nephew. Within a year and a half, Lutnick had steadily ascended within the firm, becoming the chief executive of a division of Cantor Fitzgerald that managed the personal investments of Cantor and his associates. He brought additional clients, increasing its profitability to become one of Cantor Fitzgerald's most lucrative divisions. By December 1990, Lutnick was appointed Cantor's successor in the event of his death. In 1991, after a failed attempt by Cantor Fitzgerald's president to oust him, Lutnick became the firm's chief executive and president. The following year, Cantor restructured Cantor Fitzgerald to a partnership and implemented a succession plan, abandoning his previous effort to give the company to a charitable foundation.
In 1990, Cantor began undergoing kidney dialysis, and in December 1995, he was hospitalized in New York. Lutnick moved to implement a succession plan at Cantor Fitzgerald, allowing him to become a managing general partner at the firm. The lack of involvement of Cantor's family infuriated its members, including his wife, Iris Cantor, whose attorneys had argued with Lutnick's attorneys. In March 1996, Lutnick and his division, CF Group Management, filed a lawsuit in Delaware to enforce the plan, arguing that Cantor did not possess "sufficient mental capacity" to understand the legal documents he was signing. The New York Times noted that Lutnick had already lost the necessary support of the Cantors. The partners settled in May, allowing Lutnick to retain management control while the Cantors hold a limited partnership stake. In July, Cantor died. As chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick sought to broker deals with larger investment companies such as Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.
Lutnick heralded technology at Cantor Fitzgerald. In September 1998, the firm began electronic trading for futures contracts on Treasury bonds and notes, developing eSpeed, an electronic trading platform, with an investment of US$250 million. eSpeed was released in March 1999. In addition, Lutnick diversified Cantor's investments, seeking to establish a brokering business in Europe—spending at least US$43 million since 1994—and a futures exchange known as Cantor Exchange, though it traded significantly fewer contracts than its competitors, including the Chicago Board of Trade. Businessman Michael Spencer noted that eSpeed had become a dominant market in Treasury securities trading, but had not achieved similar successes in other markets. By September 2001, eSpeed had created four dozen marketplaces, including TradeSpark, an exchange for natural gas and electricity. After the Enron scandal, TradeSpark received a surge in usage.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into 1 World Trade Center, which contained Cantor Fitzgerald's corporate headquarters. Minutes later, a second hijacked plane United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into 2 World Trade Center. The plane crashes marked the beginning of the September 11 attacks. 960 employees worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City; All 658 employees who were in the office on the day of the attacks died. Lutnick was scheduled to go into the office that day, but he had taken his son to kindergarten. His brother, Gary, did not survive. Cantor Fitzgerald's operations in London and New Jersey allowed eSpeed to continue trading. Lutnick's sobering interviews with Connie Chung on ABC News were widely publicized and he became nationally recognized, though he garnered controversy among the families of the victims for not paying deceased employees, whose paychecks had served as a safety net. The American Red Cross offered as much as US$30,000 to the families of the victims after Lutnick appealed to the organization's president and chief executive, Bernadine Healy. Lutnick attended funerals for each employee killed for a month. In October, Cantor Fitzgerald began distributing US$45 million to families. In February 2002, the firm announced it would divide US$4.9 million in profit to survivors.
A year after the attacks, Lutnick began negotiations to relocate Cantor Fitzgerald to Union Square, Manhattan, at 14th Street between Broadway and University Place, from the firm's temporary headquarters at 135 East 57th Street. He requested US$50 million for the initiative from the United States Congress and formed a working relationship with Florida representative Bill Young, the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, but the final legislation signed by president George W. Bush did not explicitly mention Cantor Fitzgerald and was less than what Lutnick had requested at US$33 million. The deal later fell through, and Lutnick began considering 10 Hanover Square before moving into 110 East 59th Street, fulfilling his vow to never return to Lower Manhattan. By December 2002, Cantor Fitzgerald had 750 employees in New York. In August 2004, the firm established a partnership, BGC Partners, for its voice brokerage business. Lutnick was appointed the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald's fixed-income trading and sales business, succeeding Irvin Goldman, in October 2007.
In January 2017, Anshu Jain, a former Deutsche Bank executive, joined Cantor Fitzgerald as its president; Jain died in 2022. Since 2020, Cantor Fitzgerald has invested in cryptocurrency, particularly Tether, a major cryptocurrency company which has been implicated in money laundering and sanctions evasion by regimes in Russia, Iran, and North Korea. In July 2024, Lutnick and presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, in which Lutnick announced Cantor Fitzgerald would open a US$2 billion lending facility with Bitcoin as collateral. As of October, Cantor Fitzgerald manages the majority of Tether's reserve assets, including over US$80 billion in Treasury securities. The firm has also invested in political endeavors, including by encouraging Rumble, an alt-tech video hosting company, to go public, advising a business operated by Omeed Malik, and investing in Strive Enterprises, an asset management company owned by Vivek Ramaswamy.
In February 2025, after being confirmed by the Senate as the United States secretary of commerce, Lutnick named his sons, Brandon and Kyle, as chairman and executive vice chairman, respectively. In addition, Sage Kelly, Pascal Bandelier, and Christian Wall were named to lead Cantor's investment banking, equities, and fixed income divisions, respectively.
After the September 11 attacks, Lutnick donated US$1 million to the Cantor Fitzgerald Foundation. He established the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, which began donating US$5,000 to families of victims with one or more children in October 2001. Cantor Fitzgerald donated US$4 million to the fund in September 2002. Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners has held an annual charity day on September 11; by September 2014, the event raised US$101 million for non-profits dedicated to the attacks, including the September 11th Education Trust. As of September 2006, the fund has donated US$180 million to families. In 2008, Lutnick appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice, hosted by Donald Trump in a charity auction. The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund has also donated to hurricane relief, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017. With senator Chuck Schumer, Lutnick appeared at P.S. 256 to personally donate US$1,000 debit cards to families affected by Hurricane Sandy. He gave debit cards of an equal amount to victims of the 2013 Moore tornado.
Lutnick is the largest benefactor to Haverford College. As of October 2014, when he gave the largest single donation to the college—valued at US$25 million, he has donated US$65 million in total. Lutnick's donations have gone towards the library, named after him; the Douglas B. Gardner Integrated Athletic Center; the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery; and the Gary Lutnick Tennis & Track Center, among other facilities.
Lutnick, a lifelong Democrat, is now a registered Republican; in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he described himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal who left the Democratic Party after he felt that the party had shifted further to the political left. In the 2016 United States elections, he donated to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Senate candidate Kamala Harris. He later attributed those donations to his wife. A Bloomberg News and OpenSecrets analysis found that the Lutnicks have given political donations since 1989. In May 2019, The New York Times disclosed that Lutnick had hosted a fundraiser for U.S. president and presidential candidate Donald Trump that raised more than US$5 million. Five years later, he hosted a fundraiser for South Carolina senator Tim Scott.
Lutnick co-hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump in London in June 2024 that was organized by Duke Buchan. In August, he raised US$15 million for Trump at his home in Bridgehampton, New York. The event caused traffic delays from Riverhead to Amagansett through the night. That month, Lutnick was appointed co-chair of Trump's transition team overseeing personnel. With Woody Johnson and Kimberly Guilfoyle, he committed to donate US$2.5 million and joined the Trump Victory Trust. By September, he had raised US$11 million for Trump, according to Bloomberg News, including a US$5 million donation to MAGA Inc. He appeared at a rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden with Elon Musk in October.
As co-chairman of Trump's transition team, Lutnick prioritized loyalty to Trump in his hiring decisions. After meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in October, Lutnick claimed that he was convinced that vaccines cause autism, and that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act had allowed vaccine manufacturers to be reckless in the production process. He told the New York Post that month that The Heritage Foundation, which led Project 2025, was "radioactive".
In January 2006, Lutnick was named to the board of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. As of November 2024, he is a member of the Partnership for New York City's board and Weill Cornell Medicine. From July 2003 to June 2024, he served as a board member of the Horace Mann School. Lutnick's financial disclosure form, released in January 2025, revealed that he had at least US$806 million in assets. He declared shares in GE Aerospace, GE Healthcare, The Walt Disney Company, Nasdaq, Inc., and the musical Kimberly Akimbo. In 2019 and 2023, he borrowed more than US$100 million from Bank of America.
Following the 2024 presidential election, Lutnick was being considered as secretary of the Treasury. Within a week, discussions had narrowed to Lutnick and Scott Bessent, who was viewed as the front-runner until Lutnick began to advocate for himself. According to Politico, the decision was being delayed by Lutnick's role in providing information to Donald Trump. The New York Times reported that Trump had expressed reservations about Lutnick, portraying him as a constant presence and a manipulator, leading to further delays as he broadened his list of candidates. Lutnick was endorsed to the position by Elon Musk, a Trump advisor; Musk considered Bessent as a "business-as-usual choice". On November 19, 2024, Trump selected Lutnick as his nominee for secretary of commerce.
In the months after the election, Lutnick privately negotiated with companies and countries on Trump's economic policy. According to The New York Times, Lutnick privately encouraged Trump to seek a trade agreement with China, believing that he was in an advantageous position. Lutnick appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on January 29, 2025, where he promoted the second Trump tariffs and vowed greater action on China and its advances in artificial intelligence, particularly the release of DeepSeek R1. In February 2025, The New York Times reported that he had been involved in discussions to offer Intel's manufacturing facilities to TSMC.
On February 18, 2025, Lutnick was confirmed by the Senate in a 51–45 vote. Democratic senators Cory Booker and Gary Peters, and Republican senators Jerry Moran and Dan Sullivan did not vote. He was sworn in on February 21.
Lutnick has supported Trump's trade policy, including the second Trump tariffs. Prior to his confirmation, Lutnick was directed by Trump to impose reciprocal tariffs, telling reporters that the Department of Commerce's work would be completed by April 1. In his first meeting with an international official, Lutnick—joined by United States Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council chairman Kevin Hassett—discussed trade with Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security. Following his confirmation, Lutnick received a congratulatory letter from Wang Wentao, the Chinese minister of commerce, expressing dissatisfaction with U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and that China was willing to resolve "respective concerns through equal dialogue and consultation."
After Trump initiated a trade war with Canada and Mexico, Lutnick was involved in negotiations with foreign leaders. In an interview on Meet the Press in March 2025, Lutnick said there was "no chance" of a recession due to Trump's economic policies. According to Politico, he received internal criticism for the tariffs. Later that month, Lutnick said the tariffs would be "worth it" even if they lead to a recession. Lutnick explained the necessity of tariffs on Canada as follows, "If I move your factory where your grandfather worked and your father worked and you planned to work … to Canada, your life is ruined. Drugs, alcohol and suicide. And then fentanyl comes in and finishes the job." Lutnick encouraged Fox News viewers to purchase stock in Tesla, stating that Tesla stock "will never be this cheap again", which allegedly violated federal ethics rules due to his federal government position. In a podcast interview that month, he stated that only a "fraudster" would be concerned and complain about a missed Social Security check, so "the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen" for complaints.
In December 1994, Lutnick married Allison Lambert, a senior associate at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker. Allison was appointed a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in February 2025 after President Donald Trump appointed himself as the center's chairman. The Lutnicks have four children.
In 1998, Lutnick purchased a Manhattan property at 11 East 71st Street, behind the Henry Clay Frick House, from the Comet Trust. The townhouse was previously owned by an entity associated with businessman Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and child sex offender. He had extensively renovated its interior renovations by May 2001. Lutnick lived in Bridgehampton, New York, on a 40-acre property he purchased in 2003 for US$15 million. In December 2024, he purchased Bret Baier's home in Washington, D.C., for US$25 million, setting the record for the most expensive house in the city. The property is inspired by the Château du Grand-Lucé. According to The New York Times, the purchase—among others by wealthy members of the Trump administration—contributed to an increase in Washington, D.C.'s luxury real estate market.
In October 2021, Lutnick disclosed that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma after testing positive for COVID-19, in a breakthrough infection after he was inoculated with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. He began chemotherapy shortly thereafter. By September 2024, he was cancer-free.
Lutnick is a recipient of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award.