Howard Lutnick was taking his son Kyle to his first day of kindergarten when the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm he ran, occupied floors 101 to 105. The 658 employees who were there died, including his brother Gary and his best friend Doug.
Days later, Lutnick was harshly criticized for suspending the victims’ salaries, but then promised to give 25% of the company’s profits for five years to their families.
Cantor Fitzgerald eventually distributed more than US$180 million, maintained health coverage for a decade, and offered jobs to the victims’ children. By 2016, 57 of them already worked at the company.