Henry Cisneros
Secretary
Henry Cisneros is the Principal of Siebert, Cisneros, Shank & Co., and the Chairman of the CityView companies, which work with the nation’s leading homebuilders to create homes priced within the range of average families. In 1981, Mr. Cisneros became the first Hispanic-American mayor of a major US city, San Antonio, Texas. During his four terms as Mayor, he helped rebuild the city’s economic base and spurred the creation of jobs through infrastructure and downtown improvements. In 1984, Mr. Cisneros was considered as a possible candidate for US Vice President and in 1986 was selected as the “Outstanding Mayor” in the nation by City and State magazine. After serving as mayor, Mr. Cisneros formed Cisneros Asset Management Company, a national fixed income management firm. In 1992, then-President Bill Clinton appointed Mr. Cisneros to be Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet, then-Secretary Cisneros was credited with initiating the revitalization of many of the nation’s public housing developments and with formulating policies that contributed to achieving the nation’s highest ever homeownership rate. In his role as the President’s chief representative to the nation’s cities, Mr. Cisneros personally worked in more than 200 US cities in every one of the fifty states.
After leaving HUD in 1997, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Univision Communications and currently serves on Univision’s Board of Directors. Mr. Cisneros has served as President of the National League of Cities, as Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and as National Chairman of the After-School All-Stars, founded by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mr. Cisneros remains active in San Antonio’s leadership, where he is the Founding Chair of BioMed S.A., an effort to accelerate the city’s healthcare and biosciences sector. He is currently a member of the advisory boards of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation. In June 2007, Mr. Cisneros was inducted into the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) “Builders Hall of Fame” and honored by the National Housing Conference as the “Housing Person of the Year.” He has also been author, editor or collaborator on several books including The American Assembly’s Interwoven Destinies: Cities and the Nation (1993). His book project with former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Opportunity and Progress: A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy (2004) was presented the Common Purpose Award for demonstrating the potential of bipartisan cooperation. He served as an infantry officer in the US Army.
Mr. Cisneros holds a BA and a MA in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University. He earned a MPA from Harvard University, studied urban economics at the MIT, holds a Doctorate in Public Administration from George Washington University, and has been awarded more than twenty honorary doctorates from leading universities.
