By Contributor,Roger Trapp

Copyright forbes

Sean Windeatt is hoping BGC Group’s latest charity day is bigger than ever

Resilience is these days a rather over-used word in life in general as well as in business. But few could doubt that it applies to the managers and employees of Cantor Fitzgerald who rebuilt the financial services company in the wake of the loss of 658 colleagues in the terrorist attack that struck New York’s World Trade Center 24 years ago today.

One of the key personnel in the effort to save the firm — and so provide for the families of those who lost their lives — was Sean Windeatt, now one of three co-chief executives of BGC Group, the brokerage that was spun out of Cantor in 2004.

In an interview earlier this week, he described how at the time he had been working at the company in London for four years in financial management roles. But in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy one of the senior executives appointed him to a role in the team leading the recovery. “He said, ‘London has got to rally round and really help New York’,” Windeatt recalled. The priorities were, first, to stabilize the company and then to look after the families. “We didn’t have all the knowledge. Some of it was lost in the U.S.. It was all about taking what you knew and learning new things,” he added. “It really taught me what you could achieve with hard work and determination.”

It took until the end of the year to restore order and then the team set about trying to rebuild the business. It started by focusing on the company’s strengths and at the end of 2002 made its first “mini-acquisition.” Windeatt says it was significant because it marked a shift from trying to save the company to moving into “growth mode.” Other acquisitions and “bold moves” followed and — through the 2004 spin-out from Cantor and becoming a public company in 2008 — the business has continued to expand, to the point that in the last financial year revenues were more than $2.2 billion.

Gratifying as the success must be there is a sense in which it is all still overshadowed by what happened on that September morning in 2001. So the company’s annual Charity Day, which was first held on the fourth anniversary of the attack in 2005, has a special resonance. Over the years, more than $220 million has been raised for a range of charities. With well-known names from sport, entertainment and elsewhere joining company staff, it is hoped that today’s event will raise more than last year’s $12 million. “It’s a classic case of something good coming out of something terrible,” said Windeatt.

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In addition to a focus on innovative technology for the financial markets, Windeatt attributes much of BCG Group’s enduring success to the loyalty and teamwork of its people. Indeed, many of those who will be on the trading floor for today’s Charity Day were at the company on the day the planes hit. “You need a leader, but he or she can’t do it on their own,” he said. “You have to empower the team. Otherwise, you can’t grow quickly.”

As might be expected of an ambitious financial services organization, Cantor and its associate firm BGC have not been not immune from controversy. For example, in December 2022, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority fined BGC Partners £5 million ($6.75 million) for executing $100 billion of trades over 18 months without proper market abuse controls, while in July 2014, the U.S.’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered it to pay rival broker Tullett Prebon $33.3 million in damages after it was accused of mounting an illegal poaching raid on its staff.

Moreover, Windeatt and his fellow co-chief executives — John Abularrage and JP Aubin — owe their present titles to the decision of Howard Lutnick to step down from running Cantor and join President Trump’s administration as commerce secretary.

Windeatt, who also serves as chief operating officer, says that, while the arrangement has only been in place for a few months, it is working well and makes sense for a global business, where different countries required different management approaches. “The three of us all bring something a bit unique,” he said.

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