Howard Lutnick

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 Lutnick's first week of classes, Solomon died of a chemotherapy drug overdose; he was being treated for 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.

Cantor Fitzgerald

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.

At the time of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald was headquartered in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The company occupied several floors just above where American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building. Of the 960 total employees who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City, all 658 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 interviews with Connie Chung on ABC News were widely publicized and he became nationally recognized. Internally, however, he garnered criticism from families of deceased employees at Cantor Fitzgerald for the company's refusal to continue paying their salaries through the end of the year. According to Lutnick, getting this authorized was beyond practical: banks would not endorse the continued payment of two-thirds of their employees, particularly when they were well-aware that said employees were deceased and no longer active employees of the company. Lutnick stated the relief Cantor obtained by way of immediate cessation of the then-missing employees' salaries and benefits, including "health insurance for families" provided Cantor Fitzgerald with an indispensable safety net in the immediate, uncertain aftermath. 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 twenty funerals a day for over 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. By September 2018, Lutnick was worth US$1.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Since 2020, Cantor Fitzgerald has invested in cryptocurrency, particularly Tether, a major cryptocurrency company that was the subject of an investigation and enforcement action by the New York Attorney General over allegations concerning its reserves and the handling of funds. 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 2024, 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, who were in their 20s, 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.

Marriage

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.

Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Lutnick said in October 2025 interview that he was neighbors with Jeffrey Epstein but said in 2005 that he would never be in the same room ever again with him due to his "disgusting" behavior at a meeting with Epstein, Lutnick, and Lutnick's wife. As Lutnick explained at that meeting he had asked why Epstein had a massage table in the middle of his house: "I say to him, 'Massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you have a massage?...And he says, 'Every day.' And then he gets, like weirdly close to me, and he says, 'And the right kind of massage'...[I]n the six to eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again." Despite this, Lutnick went on to have various contact with Epstein for many years afterward.

In January 2026, newly released Epstein files showed some contacts between Lutnick and Epstein over several years. A longtime Epstein aide reached out to Lutnick in November 2012 to arrange a meeting while Lutnick was in Saint Thomas; Lutnick, accompanied by his wife Allison and their four children, agreed to a lunch on December 23 on Epstein's private island. Emails showed Lutnick and his wife coordinating logistics, including where to dock their yacht at Little Saint James. The day after the scheduled meeting, BBC News reported that Lutnick "received an email from a redacted sender that said Epstein wanted to pass a message to him, which said: 'Nice seeing you'—suggesting that at least one visit did happen." The two also had drinks together on another occasion in 2011 according to Epstein's schedule. In November 2015, Epstein received an invitation from Lutnick to a fundraiser at his financial firm for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. In 2017, the two men discussed plans about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes. The next year, Epstein contributed to a philanthropic dinner hosted by Lutnick.

When asked about the emails, Lutnick told The New York Times "I spent zero time with him" and hung up. A Commerce Department spokesman said Lutnick had "limited interactions" with Epstein "in the presence of his wife" and has never been accused of wrongdoing. On February 10, 2026, Lutnick testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on his relationship with Epstein. Here, Lutnick admitted that in December 2012, four years after Epstein's conviction, Lutnick and his wife and children visited Little Saint James where they had lunch with Epstein. The hearing led to bipartisan criticism, and calls for Lutnick's resignation.

On May 13, 2026, ABC News reported that a House Oversight Committee transcript showed that Lutnick had described his contacts with Jeffrey Epstein as limited and that authorities never questioned him in connection with an investigation into Epstein or Maxwell.

During a May 2026, interview with the House Oversight Committee, Lutnick described his contacts with Jeffrey Epstein. The interview followed the release of records indicating that Lutnick had interacted with Epstein after 2005, despite previously stating that he had decided not to be in the same room with him again. Lutnick said that his earlier statement referred to avoiding a personal or professional relationship with Epstein rather than having no subsequent contact with him.

Lutnick acknowledged visiting Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2011 to discuss scaffolding between neighboring properties and attending a lunch on Epstein’s private island with his family in December 2012. He said that the visit was brief and that he did not witness any improper conduct. He also confirmed that he and Epstein were involved in the same 2013 investment in AdFin Solutions, but stated that he had not known of Epstein’s participation at the time.

During the interview, Lutnick withdrew an earlier claim that Epstein had used blackmail and secret recordings, describing the statement as speculation and saying that he had no personal knowledge supporting it. Following the release of the transcript, Democratic members of the committee accused Lutnick of giving inconsistent or evasive answers and called for his resignation or dismissal. Republican committee chairman James Comer defended Lutnick’s cooperation, while the White House continued to support him.

Philanthropy (2001–present)

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.

In May 2026, Lutnick had donated US$5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Republicans.

Political activities (2016–present)

Lutnick, a lifelong Democrat, registered as a Republican in 2016. 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 2025, Lutnick was one of the donors who funded the White House's East Wing demolition, and planned building of a ballroom.