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Howard W. Lutnick
Also Known As Howard William Lutnick, Howard Lutnick, Lutnick
CEO of BGC Partners
Howard W. Lutnick is Chairman & CEO of BGC Partners, Inc.(BGCP)
a leading global brokerage and financial technology company; Chairman of Newmark Group, Inc. (which operates as Newmark Knight Frank), one of the world’s leading commercial real estate advisory firms; and Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., one of the world’s leading financial services firms. CF Group Management, Inc. is the managing general partner of Cantor.
Lutnick is a graduate of Haverford College and holds a degree in economics. He joined Cantor in 1983 and was appointed President and CEO in 1991. Five years later he was named Chairman. He rebuilt the firm following the tragic losses suffered on September 11, 2001, and since then has fostered corporate philanthropy across BGC Partners and Cantor Fitzgerald through their annual Charity Day. Both firms, in conjunction with the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, donate 100% of their revenues from Charity Day to approximately 150 charities around the world and to date have raised approximately $159 million on Charity Day.
Since July 2014, Mr. Lutnick has served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of CF Finance Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (the “Cantor SPAC”). Since February 2017, Mr. Lutnick has served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of each of Rodin Global Property Trust, Inc. and Rodin Income Trust, Inc., which are non-traded real estate investment trusts, or REITs. Mr. Lutnick served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of GFI Group Inc. (“GFI”) from February 26, 2015 through the closing of BGC’s merger with GFI in January 2016. Mr. Lutnick is a member of the Board of Directors of the Horace Mann School, the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and the Board of Directors of the Partnership for New York City. Mr. Lutnick received the Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honor granted to non-military personnel by the Navy.
Lutnick and his wife Allison are proud parents of four children. More details about his role at Cantor Fitzgerald can be read here.
Early Life
Howard Lutnick was born to a Jewish family in Jericho, Long Island on July 14, 1961, the son of Solomon Lutnick, a history professor at Queens College and Jane Lutnick, an artist. Lutnick was the middle child of the family, whose siblings were an elder sister Edie and a younger brother Gary.
In 1978, Lutnick was a senior in high school when his mother died of lymphoma. The following year, Lutnick entered Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. During his first week at school, Lutnick's father died while in a hospital being treated for colon and lung cancers. A nurse treating Lutnick's father accidentally gave him 100 times the dose of chemotherapy drugs that he was supposed to receive. Now orphans, Lutnick and his two siblings were largely abandoned by extended family members and instead relied on themselves for support. Lutnick, then 18, was forced to hire a lawyer to settle the debt his father left behind.
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.
Lutnick went on to graduate from Haverford in 1983 with a degree in economics.
Education
- Graduate degree in economics - Haverford
Career
- BGC Partners - CEO
- BGC Partners - Chairman
Recognition
Ranked #4 Most Important People in Commercial Real Estate Finance by Commercial Observer (2013)
FDNY Foundation Humanitarian Award (2013)
Ranked #5 Among NJBIZ's "Power 50 Real Estate” (2012)
Worldwide Orphans Foundation honoree (2012)
Ranked #18 on Commercial Observer's “Annual Power 100” (2012)
New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) Leadership Award (2011)
Received Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest Navy award for non-military personnel
Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation Honoree
Manhattan Youth Baseball Honoree
Starlight Children's Foundation Honoree
Commencement Speaker at Vanderbilt University