By Saeed Azhar
(Reuters) – Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, whose domain spans everything from brokerages to real estate, has been one of Donald Trump's biggest boosters in the business world in recent months.
Lutnick, 63, in August became co-chairman of Trump's transition team for a second four-year term in the White House, drawing on his network of contacts from his career on Wall Street to help build a slate of candidates for serve in the next administration. His reward for his long-standing friendship and support is the role of secretary of commerce in the administration of the Republican president-elect.
“I believe his policies will be instrumental in ensuring that American businesses remain successful and our role on the world stage remains strong,” Lutnick tweeted on August 9, after hosting Trump at a fundraising dinner at his home. in the affluent coastal community of Hamptons, New York, with 130 followers.
Trump and Lutnick's relationship goes back decades. After 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees died at New York's World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001, attacks, Trump, who ran the real estate company Trump Organization, offered support to Lutnick because the CEO had to hire staff and thousands of people in the brokerage.
He and Trump also met on other occasions, including in 2008, when Lutnick was a guest on “The Apprentice,” the reality show hosted by Trump.
Wall Street is closely watching Lutnick's positions on various policies.
He has advocated for more jobs for Americans and criticized the trade pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico for hurting American auto manufacturing jobs.
Lutnick is also a big supporter of cryptocurrencies, and Cantor Fitzgerald has launched a financing business that provides leverage to investors who own bitcoins.
“Every time bitcoin drops, I'll be the buyer,” Lutnick said in a podcast on Oct. 28.
Lutnick is also a strong supporter of Israel, in line with Trump's position.
While he has recently been staunchly pro-Trump, Lutnick has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Lutnick made contributions to the U.S. Senate campaigns of Democrats Kamala Harris and Charles Schumer, Federal Election Commission records show. He also donated to the presidential campaigns of Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Jeb Bush in 2015, records show.
Lutnick's team did not respond to an interview request before the announcement.
AFTER SEPTEMBER. 11 ATTACKS
Lutnick runs a financial conglomerate that includes brokerage BGC Group. He is also executive president of Newmark Group (NASDAQ:), a commercial real estate services company and president of FMX, a platform owned by some of the largest banks and traders on Wall Street. He remains the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Lutnick and his employees had to rebuild Cantor Fitzgerald almost from scratch, creating one of the largest brokerages on Wall Street in the process.
“We rebuilt that company to take care of the families of those I lost,” he said at a Trump rally in late October.
Cantor had stopped paying missing workers after September 15, causing financial worries among some of their families, according to Reuters and other media in 2001.
Lutnick said it was a short-term measure to keep the company running, ABC News reported at the time. Cantor promised to give a quarter of his profits over the next five years to the families of employees killed in the 2001 attack.
The company's relief fund ultimately paid $180 million to victims' families over five years and provided health coverage for 10 years, according to the company's website.
A company spokesperson declined to comment.
Lutnick, who escaped the tragedy because he had taken his son to the first day of kindergarten, has become known for his charitable efforts through the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, which helps families affected by the attacks and natural disasters. 2001. He often becomes emotional when talking about the tragic events of 2001.
Lutnick was born on Long Island, east of New York City, and is the son of a history professor at Queens College in New York. He lost his mother to lymphoma when he was a senior in high school and then lost his father while attending Haverford College.
He graduated from Haverford with a degree in Economics in 1983 and joined Cantor Fitzgerald that same year.
Lutnick quickly rose through the ranks to become president and CEO in 1991.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
