Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> December 2, 2002
LAURENCE HIRSCH was elected Chairman of the Board of Centex
Corporation in July 1991. Mr. Hirsch has been Chief Executive
Officer of Centex Corporation since July 1988. He joined the
company as President and Chief Operating Officer and a member of
the Board of Directors in 1985. He also serves as Chairman of the
Board of Centex Construction Products, Inc., a public company in
which Centex owns a 65% interest. Centex Corporation, a New York
Stock Exchange company with revenues approaching $8 billion, is
one of the nation's largest home builders, mortgage loan
originators and general building contractors and has housing
operations in the United Kingdom. Fortune magazine currently
ranks Centex as the nation's 'Most Admired' engineering and
construction company. Prior to joining Centex, Mr. Hirsch was
President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Southdown,
Inc., in Houston, Texas. An attorney, he previously had been a
partner in the Houston-based law firm of Bracewell & Patterson.
Mr. Hirsch received a BS in Economics from The Wharton School at
the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from the Villanova
University School of Law in Villanova, Pennsylvania. He is a
native of New York City. Currently, Mr. Hirsch serves on the
Board of Directors of Belo Corporation and Luminex Corporation.
He is also an Advisory Director of Heidelberger Zement, AG. He is
a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the
Board of Consultors of Villanova Law School. Mr. Hirsch is a
member of the Board of Directors of Methodist Hospitals of Dallas
and is an honorary Director of Senior Citizens of Greater Dallas. Profile
TWST: Would you begin with a brief historical sketch of thecompany followed by a picture of things as they are now?
Mr. Hirsch: Centex was founded in 1950 and has been in the
homebuilding