Howard Lutnick

Howard William Lutnick (born July 14, 1961) is an American businessman and government official serving as the 41st United States Secretary of Commerce since February 2025. He previously led Cantor Fitzgerald as president from 1991, chief executive officer from 1991, and chairman from 1996 until stepping down in 2025 upon Senate confirmation as Commerce Secretary. Under his leadership, the firm expanded into electronic trading via eSpeed and became a major player in financial services, real estate, and brokerage.

Lutnick's tenure at Cantor Fitzgerald was profoundly shaped by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which the firm lost 658 of its 960 New York employees, including Lutnick's brother, after their offices in the World Trade Center's North Tower were destroyed. He was absent that morning, delivering his son to kindergarten, and subsequently committed to supporting the victims' families through philanthropy, including annual charity events and billions in compensation and aid from the firm's revenues.

Howard Lutnick was born on July 14, 1961, in Jericho, New York, into a Jewish family as the middle child among three siblings, with an older sister named Edie and a younger brother named Gary. His father, Solomon Lutnick, was a history professor at Queens College, while his mother, Jane, worked as an artist specializing in sculpture and painting.

Lutnick's adolescence was marked by significant family disruptions, including the illness and eventual divorce of his parents, followed by their deaths from cancer. His mother succumbed to lymphoma in 1978 during his senior year of high school, leaving the family in emotional and financial strain. The following year, in 1979, just one week into his freshman year at Haverford College, his father died of cancer, rendering Lutnick an orphan at age 18 with limited support from extended family.

These losses imposed formative challenges, as Lutnick assumed a central role in supporting his siblings amid grief and uncertainty, with his path to higher education nearly derailed by the absence of parental guidance and resources. Haverford College's intervention—allowing him to defer tuition payments—enabled him to continue his studies despite the hardships.