Howard Lutnick

About Howard Lutnick

Donald Trump tapped Howard Lutnick to co-chair his transition team, then named him America's 41st secretary of commerce.

Lutnick lost both parents as a teenager, leaving him and his two siblings to take care of each other.

After graduating from Haverford College, he got a job at the Wall Street firm of Cantor Fitzgerald, where he became a favorite of founder Bernie Cantor and eventually took control of the firm.

The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center killed 658 of Cantor Fitzgerald's 960 New York employees, including Lutnick's younger brother, Gary.

Thanks to an electronic trading business and savvy dealmaking, Lutnick rebuilt his empire, which employed more than 14,000 people by the time he joined the Trump administration in 2025.