Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> December 2, 2002

Laurence Hirsch – Centex Corporation (ctx)

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 the

company followed by a picture of things as they are now?

Mr. Hirsch: Centex was founded in 1950 and has been in the

homebuilding