Larry E. Hirsch
Phone : 202-551-9200
Please address e-mail correspondence to Karolina.Filipiak@cepa.org
Larry Hirsch serves as Chairman at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Hirsch holds a Master’s Degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), as well as a J.D., cum laude, from the Villanova University School of Law in Villanova, Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Since March 2004, Hirsch has been Chairman of Eagle Materials, Inc., a NYSE-listed company with a market capitalization of $1.8 billion. Eagle is a producer of cement, gypsum wallboard, aggregates and readymix concrete. Hirsch is also Chairman of Highlander Partners, L.P., a private equity firm that specializes in healthcare, building and food service industries investments.
Between 1985 and his retirement in 2004, Hirsch served in various leadership roles at Centex Corporation, a Dallas-based, NYSE-listed company that is one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, mortgage loan originators and general building contractors, with housing operations in the United Kingdom. Hirsch’s positions at Centex included President and Chief Operating Officer (1985-1988), Chief Executive Officer (1988-March 2004), and Chairman of the Board (1991-2004). During Hirsch’s tenure, Centex rapidly expanded its core homebuilding business and added new financial services and home services businesses. Revenues grew from just over $1 billion to more than $10 billion, net earnings rose from $40 million to $825 million and the company’s stock price increased twenty-fold. Fortune Magazine consistently ranks Centex as one of the nation’s “Most Admired” engineering and construction companies.
From 1976 to 1985, Hirsch served in various positions including President and Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors at Southdown, Inc., a Houston, TX-based oil and gas exploration company and cement manufacturer. Hirsch helped restructure Southdown by selling many operations and refocusing the company on its two core businesses. During his nine years at the company, its stock price and earnings rose dramatically.
From 1973 to 1976, Hirsch was an associate and later partner at Bracewell and Patterson, Attorneys, in Houston, Texas. As a young associate, he represented a dissident shareholder group that was successful in gaining control of Southdown, Inc. He left the firm when a major shareholder agreed to his suggestion to become President of that company. In addition to running the Southdown proxy context, he represented a number of clients in the oil and gas service business, primarily in negotiating service contracts connected with oil exploration in the North Sea.
From 1971 to 1973, Hirsch was an associate attorney in the corporate and securities law department at Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen, Attorneys, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hirsch currently serves on the Board of Directors of the A.H. Belo Corporation, a newspaper publishing company. Larry also serves as an Advisory Director of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies as well as on the Board of Consultors at Villanova Law School. He is an Honorary Director of the Senior Citizens of Greater Dallas and was a member of the Board of Directors of Methodist Hospitals in Dallas for many years.
Hirsch has been awarded the Pacesetters Award from the Black State Employees Association of Texas, the Award of Excellence from the Dallas Historical Society, and an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Laws from the University of Dallas.