Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick became visibly emotional at his confirmation hearing Wednesday as he recalled the more than 650 employees — including his brother, Gary — from his firm who were killed in New York City on 9/11.
“As you can imagine, the pain we suffered with Gary and 657 of my other friends and colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald were killed on 9/11,” Lutnick said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee.
“I still can’t say it without getting emotional, sorry,” Lutnick continued. “No one in the office survived. I was taking my son, Kyle, to his first day of kindergarten, which is why I’m with you today.”
Lutnick said he gave his surviving employees a choice the next day: attend 20 funerals a day for the next 33 days, or try to rebuild the company to take care of the families.
The employees agreed to donate 25 percent of their salaries to the families of their lost colleagues, Lutnick said, raising $180 million over the next five years.
“My employees, they stitched my soul back together,” Lutnick said. When he took a division of the company public in 2008, Lutnick said he paid back those employees double what they gave to the families.
Lutnick was introduced by Vice President Vance, who called the nominee “a dear friend” and a “force of nature.”
“I can’t think of a better person to be the Commerce secretary than a person who is a product guy, who is a sales guy and who is an incredible human being who doesn’t forget the employees that he lost that day,” Vance said.
