Good on ya, Kantor Fitzgerald! Good on ya!

[Stinky The Clown]

Most of you probably recall that the bond trading firm, Kantor Fitzgerald was decimated on 9/11, when they lost a major portion of their staff and their operations were halted, except for a back-up site in New Jersey. I recall vividly the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, on teevee shortly after the attck, genuinely overcome with grief .... not so mucgh for his comapny but for the people who made up his company .... and for their families. He vowed then to give 25% of all company profits to their survivors. Well, it seems he was as good as his word and to dat something in the neigborhood of $150,000,000 has gone right there ... to the survirors. Clearly there are genuinely good people in this world ... and some are financial firm CEOs.

The good Mr. Lutnick


From their web site (http://www.cantor.com/)

On September 19, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald made a pledge to distribute 25% of the firm's profits and committed to paying for 10 years of healthcare for the benefit of the families and loved ones of its former Cantor Fitzgerald, eSpeed and TradeSpark employees (profits which would otherwise be distributed to the partners of Cantor Fitzgerald). Cantor Fitzgerald has distributed this 25% of its profits every quarter since, and will continue to do so until September 11, 2006.

Note the end date cited at the end of that quote.

So .... yesterday on teevee I again saw him. This morning, the head of the Kantor Fitzgerald Fund, Mr. Lutnick's sister, was also on teevee.

Kantor Fitzgerald is going to do for the people of New Orleans, and other Katrina victims, what they did for their own people.

God Bless these good people. THEY are a slice of the America in which I was born, raised, and used to live. THEY are a slice of America for which I wore a uniform. THEY are a slice of America for which my father, his brothers, my mother's brothers, and their families fought in WWII.

America isn't dead. The hope remains.

God Bless this once and future great country as we weather the storm that currently rages around us.

God Bless America!

You're DAMN RIGHT I'm proud to be an AMERICAN

[babylonsister]

1. I remember Cantor vividly for what and who they lost

on 9/11. What exactly are they going to do now? I missed them this a.m.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. They're going to give 25% of their profits to the people hit by Katrina

I didn't hear the details, but that's essentially it.

[Jacobin]

3. Lutnick is the doofus who cut widow's medical insurance

a week after their husbands died on 9/11 and ended the paychecks immediately.

He also glomed onto the tragedy to try to increase his bond trading business and otherwise acted like a troll post 9/11.

This guy is no saint

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I never heard any of that.

Links to the facts?

[peekaloo]

7. change of heart but it happened.

http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2003/09/03/september11/whoswho571456_0_4_person.shtml
---------
Lutnick, 41, quickly became a public face of grief and then a target for Cantor relatives outraged at his decision to halt paychecks to the families of deceased employees. He ultimately won back the trust of most families by convening town meetings, phoning hundreds of family members and writing condolence letters.

Cantor Fitzgerald has given more than $120 million in profits to the families so far. The firm is now in a temporary office in midtown Manhattan.
----------

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Okay ... but I still think he's a good guy ....

.... that story implies a rocky (to say the least) start, but after giving $120 Mil (the current news is that the total is up to $150) I'd say he's redeemed himself quite well.

[lateo]

5. Wow.

That guy is a hell of a human being. This is the kind of story that keeps me believing in humanity.

[Totally Committed]

6. This proves the addage that there is an exception to every rule!

A Corporation that (1) Decides to do something to help those of their own who have suffered (2) Then, actually follows through (3) sees a horrible disaster similar to theirs, and pledges that same help to those survivors. I am (pleasantly) shocked and amazed.

Good for Kantor Fitzgerald, and good for Howard Lutnick. This man is truly a philanthropist in every sense of that word. It's Americans like this who restore my faith in some of humanity.

Thank you for posting this! It is truly uplifting!

TC