President-elect Donald Trump has named Howard Lutnick—the CEO recognized for his sharp-elbowed ascent to Wall Avenue’s higher echelon, in addition to his resilience after the 9/11 assaults devastated his firm—as his decide for Secretary of Commerce.
Within the new position, Lutnick, who has co-chaired Trump’s transition crew, will lead the incoming administration’s course on tariffs and commerce and keep direct duty over the Workplace of United States Commerce Consultant, Trump introduced in a put up on Reality Social on Tuesday.
Lutnick, a longtime New York energy participant, turned President and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Avenue funding banking and monetary companies agency, within the early Nineteen Nineties at simply 29 years outdated.
All through Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign, Lutnick—who has donated over $1 million to Trump’s tremendous PAC and hosted a $15 million fundraiser at his Hamptons home this summer season—has change into a prime financial adviser.
Lutnick was one of many major voices in Trump’s camp advocating for greater tariffs, in a bid to slash company taxes stateside and insulate U.S.-based enterprise from competitors abroad.
For months, many suspected Trump would faucet Lutnick for Treasury Secretary, a job that is still unfilled.
A consultant for Lutnick didn’t instantly reply to Fortune’s request for remark.
Who’s Howard Lutnick?
Lutnick, 63, climbed the enterprise ladder rapidly, however he didn’t have a straightforward begin: Each his mother and father had died by the point he was 18, leaving him and his two siblings to fend for themselves.
The New York native joined Cantor Fitzgerald as a bond dealer shortly after graduating faculty and rapidly fashioned an in depth mentor-mentee relationship with the agency’s founder, Bernard Cantor.
Eight years after becoming a member of, Lutnick was named Cantor Fitzgerald’s president and CEO of the corporate—having reportedly “elbowed his strategy to the highest” as Cantor was on his deathbed—and 5 years after that, he turned chairman.
“There isn’t any sugar-coating the truth that earlier than, and even after, Sept. 11, Mr. Lutnick was extensively disliked within the trade,” Suzanne Craig wrote within the New York Instances in 2011. “A ruthless competitor even by Wall Avenue requirements, he has made various enemies over time. In 1996, as Mr. Cantor, his mentor, lay dying, Mr. Lutnick fought with Mr. Cantor’s spouse, Iris, for management of Cantor Fitzgerald. She later barred him from the funeral.”
Cantor Fitzgerald was brutalized by the 9/11 assaults. The agency was headquartered on the a hundred and first via one hundred and fifth flooring of the World Commerce Heart’s north tower; the hijacked flight hit flooring 93 via 99, leaving these on the Cantor flooring with no method of escaping.
Each single employee who had been within the workplace—658 workers—died that morning, representing practically 70% of the agency’s headcount. Lutnick was dropping his son off at kindergarten that morning and wasn’t within the workplace, however his youthful brother Gary, additionally a Cantor worker, was killed. Cantor workers represented practically 1 in 4 of the victims killed in New York that day.
Inside per week, Lutnick returned to the buying and selling desk and, amid widespread criticism, introduced the agency can be chopping off paychecks to the agency’s deceased workers. He later pledged 25% of the agency’s earnings over the following decade to their subsequent of kin, together with ongoing medical health insurance protection. He additionally gave them $90 million from his personal private financial savings.
Right this moment, Lutnick stands as one in every of Wall Avenue’s longest-serving CEOs, with 41 years on the helm of Cantor Fitzgerald. Throughout his tenure, Lutnick has overseen the $1.3 billion merger of BGC Companions, a monetary companies firm, with eSpeed, an digital bond buying and selling platform, in addition to taken Rumble, a video platform, public through particular goal acquisition firm (SPAC). Earlier this yr, via BCG Group—of which Lutnick can also be CEO—he unveiled a futures alternate referred to as FMX, which counts Morgan Stanley, Citi and Goldman Sachs amongst its fairness companions. In the meantime, his financial stake within the firm is about 60%, up from 25% 20 years in the past.
Over the previous few months, Lutnick has balanced his CEO duties along with his Trump marketing campaign management by working for Cantor between 6:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., after which from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., with Trump time in between, the Wall Avenue Journal reported.
Trump hopes Lutnick will take the reins on tariffs
One among Trump’s major speaking factors all through his marketing campaign has been his dedication to elevating tariffs. As commerce secretary, Lutnick might be nearer to that promise than another appointee.
“Tariffs are an incredible software [for] the president to make use of,” Lutnick instructed CNBC in October, arguing that the Trump administration will use tariffs to “construct.”
“If we wish to make it in America, tariff it, or if we’re competing with it, tariff it,” he added.
Lutnick has change into more and more near Elon Musk, one other key Trump adviser, The New York Instances identified, “and, given the Commerce Division’s position in increasing broadband web entry, [Lutnick] may present the tech mogul’s Starlink with a big increase.”
As a part of the transition crew, Lutnick has been instrumental in recruiting and hiring. He has promised to do the identical as a member of the administration, NPR reported—completely “stacking” the crew with “loyalists.”
Many, nevertheless, have voiced concern over Lutnick’s potential conflicts of curiosity, together with concerning cryptocurrency; Cantor Fitzgerald, manages a handful of reserve funds for Tether, a stablecoin.
