Howard William Lutnick (/ˈlʌtnɪk/; born July 14, 1961[1]) is an American businessman who is the former chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Group.

[3] During his first week at school, Lutnick's father died after a nurse treating him for colon and lung cancers accidentally gave him 100 times the dose of chemotherapy drugs that he was supposed to receive.

[3] The president and dean of Haverford, an institution priding itself on a Quaker heritage, called Lutnick a week after his father's death and offered him a full scholarship for his education there.

[10] Lutnick placed a high value on technology early on, and in 1999 made the decision to take eSpeed, an electronic trading subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, public.

[11] This move enabled the two entities to grow independently of each other, but required Cantor to borrow $400 million in loans and go into debt for the first time as a company in order to properly fund BGC's initial growth.

[12] He was also involved in the SPAC merger of earth observation company Satellogic in January 2022, where former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin invested $150 million.

[16][17] At the time of the September 11 attacks, Cantor Fitzgerald's offices occupied the 101–105th floors in the World Trade Center's North Tower, just above where a hijacked plane hit the building.

[22][23] In a televised interview with CNN's Larry King on September 19, Lutnick addressed the issue, saying “I lost everybody in the company… I don't have any money to pay their salaries.”[22][24] In that same interview, Lutnick went on to say that while paychecks had been stopped, families of Cantor employees who had died in the attack would receive a 25% share of future Cantor profits for five years as well as health insurance for the next ten years.

[1] Lutnick has been featured in events and specials relating to September 11, including the 2012 documentary Out of the Clear Blue Sky by director Danielle Gardner.

Celebrities, sports stars and other notable individuals take part in the event on Cantor's and BGC's trading floors by speaking with clients throughout the day.

[36] When Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey in October 2012, Lutnick pledged $10 million to aid families who were severely affected by the storm.

Lutnick, with the assistance of his wife Allison, sister Edie, and team of volunteers and employees, personally distributed the debit cards to parents beginning at Public School 256 in Far Rockaway.

[38] After the 2013 Moore tornado killed dozens of people and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, Lutnick appeared on Piers Morgan Live on CNN and pledged that his companies and the Cantor Relief Fund would donate $2 million to victims of the disaster.

[51][52][not verified in body] On December 10, 1994, Lutnick married Allison Lambert, a law associate at Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker.

During the episode, he discussed his life in detail, including his experiences during and after the 9/11 attacks, his leadership of Cantor Fitzgerald, and his views on resilience and rebuilding in the face of tragedy.