NEW YORK — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by returning to the community he helped rebuild after losing his brother and 658 employees at Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick attended a memorial ceremony Friday at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, joined the firm’s annual Charity Day and planned a family dinner at his son Brandon’s apartment. The observances followed a private gathering where families read the names and displayed photographs of those killed when hijackers struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people died. Cantor Fitzgerald was headquartered in the North Tower. Lutnick, then the firm’s leader, survived the attack and faced the immediate task of rebuilding the company while supporting the families of the dead. He said the company ultimately provided $180 million over five years after promising each affected family at least $100,000. “Before 9/11, I was only about outcomes,” Lutnick said. “And after 9/11, it was about outcomes and how long is this going to take.” That lesson now follows him into President Donald Trump’s administration, where Lutnick says the clock is central to his job. He described Trump as a “dealmaker-in-chief” and said the administration has roughly two years to turn major trade and investment announcements into actual construction, production and jobs. Among his priorities are carrying out commitments involving Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; expanding domestic semiconductor production; increasing power generation; reviving nuclear energy; and bringing pharmaceutical, automobile and advanced manufacturing work back to the United States. Lutnick said an arrangement with Taiwan could bring enough semiconductor manufacturing to the country to cover 40 percent of U.S. usage, with another 10 percent potentially coming from Intel. He also cited a $550 billion Japanese commitment and a $350 billion South Korean commitment tied to projects including shipbuilding and power generation. The secretary said he wants to help build at least 100 gigawatts of power, strengthen the domestic nuclear supply chain, and advance pipelines, mines and rail lines. Trump has called for 10 nuclear reactors to be placed into construction, Lutnick said, arguing that the administration can make meaningful progress by ordering long-lead equipment and starting work even when projects will take years to finish. “We’ve gotten huge deals done,” Lutnick said. “Now I have to go execute on those huge deals and deliver for the American people.” The attacks also changed Cantor Fitzgerald’s identity, Lutnick said. Before 9/11, he described it as a family-oriented business that recruited heavily through personal networks. Afterward, it became a community centered on the families left behind. The company offered jobs to the children of employees killed in the attacks; Lutnick said the son of his late best friend recently joined the firm. Rebuilding began under extraordinary pressure. Cantor Fitzgerald worked from temporary locations, including a disaster-recovery site, Lutnick’s apartment and offices made available by Bloomberg. Hiring became an emergency operation. In one division, he said, only the manager survived after roughly 80 of 84 employees were killed. Candidates moved through a rapid interview process, with Lutnick’s central question being whether they could start the following Monday. The experience, he said, made him more willing to form partnerships and pursue deals if doing so could help the families more quickly. Cantor Fitzgerald’s Charity Day has become one of the most visible continuing legacies of that response. The firm gives its trading revenue for the day to charitable organizations; Lutnick said last year’s event raised $15 million for roughly 100 to 150 charities. For Lutnick, the anniversary is both a remembrance of lives lost and a measure of the responsibility that followed. He said the attacks were an assault on American freedom, values and way of life, and rejected any suggestion that the victims deserved what happened. His governing calculation is now straightforward: produce results, and produce them before time runs out.