Management Team

A preeminent capital markets investment bank serving more than 5,000 institutional clients around the world, Cantor Fitzgerald is recognized for its strengths in equity and fixed income capital markets, investment banking, prime brokerage, commercial real estate finance and its global distribution platform. Cantor Fitzgerald is also a leader in new businesses and marketplaces including mobile gaming and gaming technology, e-commerce, insurance and other ventures. One of the leading middle market investment banks, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is one of 21 primary dealers authorized to trade U.S. government securities with The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. is the parent entity of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.).

BGC serves the world’s leading banks and investment banks in brokering credit, rates, foreign exchange, equities, and other asset classes. BGC also offers financial technology solutions, market data, and analytics regarding select financial instruments and markets. BGC’s customers include many of the world’s largest banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments, corporations, property owners, real estate developers and investment firms. BGC’s Newmark Grubb Knight Frank commercial real estate services business, a premier, full-service commercial real estate firm, serves the marketplace with an integrated platform of brokerage, capital markets , and advisory services including investment sales and financial services, consulting, project and development management, property and facilities management and valuation services.

Mr. Lutnick guided the rebuilding of Cantor following the devastating September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks that claimed the lives of 658 of the firm’s 960 New York-based employees. Since then, Cantor has provided over $180 million to help the families of the firm’s employees who perished.  Each year on their annual Charity Day, Cantor and BGC, in conjunction with the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, donate their entire global revenues to 150 charitable causes around the world. Cantor, BGC and the Relief Fund have also committed $10 million to assist thousands of families in New York and New Jersey who were severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Mr. Lutnick graduated from Haverford College in 1983 with a degree in economics and joined Cantor Fitzgerald the same year.  He was named President and CEO in 1991 and Chairman in 1996. He is a member of the boards of Haverford College, the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research at Rockefeller University, Intrepid Museum Foundation, National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum Foundation, and The Partnership for New York City.  Mr. Lutnick received the Department of the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honor granted by the Navy to non-military personnel. Mr. Lutnick and his wife Allison have four children.
 

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Mr. Lynn, who sparked the idea of creating BGC as a separate business from Cantor Fitzgerald and became one of BGC’s co-founders in October 2004, has spearheaded the broking operations of the Company globally and has played an integral role in the Company’s significant growth since then, including its 2008 merger with eSpeed, Inc. In addition to his executive responsibility for ensuring that the Company provides services of the highest quality to its customers, Mr. Lynn oversees the Company’s corporate functions including finance, risk management, technology, legal & compliance, human resources, and communications. An experienced and authoritative financial professional, Mr. Lynn promotes BGC's thought leadership as a preeminent global inter-dealer broker to wholesale market participants worldwide.  Reflecting BGC's commitment to help people in communities around the world, Mr. Lynn plays a leading role in the Company's annual Charity Day, in which its revenues are donated to dozens of worthy causes worldwide.
 
Prior to his position with BGC, Mr. Lynn previously served as Executive Managing Director of Cantor Fitzgerald International, where he held management positions of increasing responsibility including leading its Eurobond desk after joining that firm in 1989 as a German Govt Bond broker.  Earlier roles in the capital markets included serving as a UK equity dealer with Paul E Schweder Miller & Co. and as Associate Director in charge of broking at Purcell Graham Incorporated.
 

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Mr. Merkel is also the Executive Managing Director, General Counsel, Secretary and Director of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. Previously, he was the Director, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of eSpeed, Inc., a leader in electronic financial marketplaces and trading technology which merged with BGC Partners in 2008.

Prior to joining Cantor Fitzgerald in 1993, Mr. Merkel was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Goldman Sachs & Co., dedicated to the J. Aron Division. Earlier he was an associate with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. Mr. Merkel is on the supervisory board of the Electronic Liquidity Exchange, a fully electronic futures exchange, and is a founding member of the Wholesale Markets Brokers’ Association, Americas.

Mr. Merkel graduated with a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and received his law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law.

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Mr. Windeatt has over a decade of experience in financial markets and has been responsible for business management at BGC since 2001. He began his career in the financial markets at United Assurance which was followed by a move to Cantor Fitzgerald in 1997 where he held various positions in financial management. After the events of 11th September 2001, he was transferred to the front office, reporting to Shaun Lynn and engaging in the process of helping to rebuild the business. More recently, Mr. Windeatt has been a key member of the management team for Europe and Asia in helping to rapidly grow the business organically and through acquisition and now oversees global front office business operations.

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Since December 2008, he has served as CFO for Europe and Asia for both BGC and Cantor Fitzgerald.  In his new role, he will also continue to serve as CFO for Europe and Asia for Cantor Fitzgerald.

Prior to BGC, Mr. Sadler spent 11 years with Bear Stearns, where he served most recently as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Bear Stearns-Europe in addition to other management roles.  He also was a member of that firm’s European Executive Committee.  Earlier, he served in a number of finance positions over a 14-year span with Barclays Capital (and its predecessor DeZoete & Bevan), including Director of Global Finance and Divisional Director, Markets Division.  He began his career with KPMG (previously Peat Marwick Mitchell).  Mr. Sadler is a Chartered Accountant in the UK, and holds a degree in Engineering from Cambridge University.
 

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Mr. Webster has over 30 years of capital markets experience in broking and management. He joined BGC in late 2004 from ICAP, where he was CEO for Asia Pacific and Middle East, based in Sydney.

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With over 30 years experience in the broking industry, Mr. Scotto -started his career 1981 at Garban, which merged with Intercapital Plc in 1999 to form ICAP. At Garban, Mr. Scotto was the head of technology and served as president of Garban Computer Systems. In 1985, he joined Mabon Nugent where he served as general partner and chief administrative officer. In 1992 Mr. Scotto joined Liberty Brokerage in London and from 1994 to 1999 he built the business of Liberty Eurasia, returning to New York in 1999 as global chief operating officer of Liberty Brokerage.

In 2000 Liberty Brokerage merged with Tullett and Mr. Scotto served as chief operating officer of that business until 2003 when the company merged with Collins Stewart. Mr. Scotto became Group CEO of Collins Stewart Tullett Plc. and upon the acquisition of Prebon, Mr. Scotto was promoted to Global CEO of Tullett Prebon Plc. From 2007 to 2009 Mr. Scotto served as CEO of Tullett Prebon Americas and from 2009 as a consultant to Tullett Prebon.

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Mr Harvey's career in the financial markets has spanned over 35 years, beginning as a trader at Foreign and Colonial Investment in London. From there he joined Prebon International in London as a broker for Inter Bank and Local Government. In 1985 Mr Harvey was appointed Director of Yen Swap Broking in Capital Market and Treasury Services for Prebon in Hong Kong.

Prior to joining BGC, Mr Harvey was Chief Executive Officer for Asia Pacific at Prebon Asia and was responsible for the expansion of the business into Manila, Bangkok, India and Jakarta. In 2004 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Asia Pacific of the newly merged companies, Tullett and Prebon.
 

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Mr. Aubin began his broking career with Viel-Tradition Group in 1990. After trading futures and options for ten years between London and Paris, he was promoted to run the company's continental European operations, including Finacor Group and listed products worldwide before he joined BGC in 2005. Mr Aubin was instrumental in BGC’s rapid expansion in Continental Europe, including the acquisitions of ETC Pollak in 2005 and Aurel in 2006.

In 2008 Mr. Aubin moved to BGC's New York office as Global Head of Listed Products, with a responsibility to further develop BGC's voice and electronic broking services in listed products including equity derivatives, cash equity, futures and options on futures, and primary structured products.

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Prior to his appointment as Executive Managing Director, North America for BGC, Mr. LaVecchia was Executive Managing Director, Director U.S. Operations for eSpeed, the leading provider of electronic trading technology for the global capital markets. This role entailed responsibility for all of the North American front-office, revenue generating operations.

Mr. LaVecchia has worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and its related businesses for over 19 years, including as Executive Managing Director for Cantor's international operations. Prior to this he was responsible for Cantor Fitzgerald's derivative and foreign exchange businesses in Europe and Asia and served as the liaison between Cantor Fitzgerald and eSpeed.

Mr. LaVecchia is a supporter of numerous local charities in New York, including Alliance for Lupus Research where he is presently co-chairing the walk-a-thon with Woody Johnson. Mr. LaVecchia supports the Boomer Esiason Foundation, a charity devoted to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and is also associated with the Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation.

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Mr. Lehrman  is  also Co-Founder and Chairman of Cantor Commercial Real Estate, a fully integrated commercial real estate finance company providing loan originations and securitization, loan sales and acquisition services, is the first new CMBS platform in a decade to originate, securitize, and lead manage its own deal, with an initial securitization of $635 million.

Prior to joining Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Mr. Lehrman was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, and Co-Head of the Credit Suisse Real Estate Direct Group where he was responsible for over $100 billion in North American real estate loan origination and over $30 billion of high yield real estate debt and equity distribution. Mr. Lehrman oversaw the expansion of the business in the U.S., Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, with offices in Dubai and Mexico City.

Mr. Lehrman is a graduate of Columbia Business School where he received an MBA in both Real Estate and Finance, New York University where he received a diploma in Real Estate, and Carnegie Mellon University where he received Bachelor of Science degrees in both Industrial Management and Managerial Economics.

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Mr. Norton joined BGC in May 2004. His key role is to ensure BGC's clients and brokers have access to the best technical expertise and support within the global financial marketplace.

He began his career in financial markets in 1984, trading Eurobonds for Smith Barney, Harris Upham, followed by 11 years at Cantor Fitzgerald, managing businesses that broker European Government Bonds. His next move was to Head of Sales for eSpeed International in London, where he oversaw the introduction of eSpeed to the European financial markets.

In 1999 he became Global Head of Sales at eSpeed, where he drove the sales effort for eSpeed's Software Solutions and eSpeed's online initiatives and added new products to the eSpeed electronic trading platform.

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In his role Mr. Benfield has global responsibility for the BGC Market Data businesses.  Working in conjunction with BGC’s global broking operations, including the electronic broking and global pricing teams, BGC Market Data aggregates the overall pricing from BGC’s daily broking operations worldwide.  This allows for external distribution of specialized, independent and verifiable OTC pricing services, including real-time trading data and analytics.

Prior to joining BGC, Mr. Benfield was Regional Managing Director for ICAP Information Services in the Asia Pacific region.  His role encompassed management of commercial operations, product development, global strategic marketing and overall vendor distribution engagements for the ICAP Information Services Group.   Also while at ICAP, he held the position of Regional Head of Business Development and Operations in the Asia Pacific region.

Prior to joining ICAP in 2004, Mr. Benfield held a number of senior management positions in the market data industry over the previous 10 years.  These included Telerate , Dow Jones Telerate, BRIDGE Information Systems, and Moneyline Telerate where Mr. Benfield  was Head of its Solutions Group in Asia Pacific, managing  the regional sales teams and  responsible for overall business development, specifically for OTC markets and strategic broker alliances.

Mr. Benfield was also a Private Banker in the London market, working at both Credit Lyonnais and Barclays Bank International.  He is a member of the ACI.

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Mr. Spring has been engaged in inter-dealer broking for over 18 years, attaining the position of Deputy CEO, Asia Pacific for Prebon Yamane in 2000. His experience of working in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore gives him an in-depth understanding of the unique aspects of countries within the region.

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In 2006, Mr Kitchin was promoted to Managing Director of Business Development. Some key highlights of this role included managing the integration of some of BGC Partners most high profile and strategically important acquisitions:

• ETC Pollak and Aurel in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Aurel BGC is the French investment company created from the merger of both these companies 

• Eurobrokers, a leading inter-dealer broker specialising in money market, derivative and other securities products in May 2005. As well as significantly enhancing BGC’s presence in New York, this acquisition also led to the addition of over 150 brokers joining in London, Nyon and Mexico City

• Radix Energy in March 2008 through a subsidiary, BGC Radix Energy L.P. Singapore. The acquisition marked an important step in BGC’s expansion through its ability to offer clients voice and electronic brokerage services in the world’s energy markets, for the first time. BGC Radix Energy serves clients on a global basis and is based in Singapore
 

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Prior to BGC Ms. Tierney was Chief Information Officer of eSpeed, having joined the company in February 2007. Upon the merger of eSpeed with BGC, in April 2008, she joined the management team of BGC Partners, Inc.

Ms. Tierney previously held global product development, infrastructure, client service and operations management positions at Bloomberg, reporting directly to the CEO. She was responsible for software development of systems, applications, and the technology platform of Bloomberg television, radio, and multi-media services. Ms. Tierney received a B. Eng. degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in information systems from Stevens Institute of Technology.

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Lori Pennay is a Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Human Resources and Partnership, overseeing all human resources, compensation, and partnership administration functions for the company globally.  Previously, Ms. Pennay served as a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, where she provided legal advice and representation to BGC with respect to employment and partnership matters.

Prior to joining BGC, Ms. Pennay served as employment counsel for Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, where she was primarily responsible for providing legal advice and representation for the private banking and certain back office divisions.  She began her career as an employment lawyer with the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.

Ms. Pennay holds a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University with High Distinction honors and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
 

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