Henry Cisneros

The Honorable Henry Cisneros is Chairman of American Triple I, an infrastructure investment firm based in New York. He is also a Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Equity Owner of Shank Williams Cisneros & Co., LLC and Principal of Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC., a national municipal and corporate finance firm. Mr. Cisneros founded CityView in 2003 and continues to actively invest in its projects. CityView is a partner in building more than 100 communities in 13 states and more than 7,000 homes with a total value of over $5 billion.

His community-building career began at the local level. After serving three terms as a city council member, in 1981, Mr. Cisneros became the first Hispanic-American mayor of a major U.S. 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 massive infrastructure and downtown improvements. 

In 1984, Mr. Cisneros was interviewed by the Democratic presidential nominee as a possible candidate for Vice President of the United States, and in 1986, he was selected as the nation’s “Outstanding Mayor” by City and State Magazine. After completing four terms as mayor, Mr. Cisneros formed Cisneros Asset Management Company, a fixed-income management firm that operated nationally. At the time, his company was ranked as the second-fastest-growing money-management firm in the nation.

In 1992, President Bill Clinton appointed Mr. Cisneros to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet, Secretary Cisneros is 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 U.S. cities in every one of the 50 states.

After leaving HUD in 1997, Mr. Cisneros was President and Chief Operating Officer of Univision Communications, which is the Spanish-language broadcaster that has become the fifth-most-watched television network in the country. Mr. Cisneros served on Univision’s Board of Directors until 2020. Additionally, he has served as President of the National League of Cities, Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and Vice-Chairman of Habitat for Humanity International. Mr. Cisneros remains active in San Antonio’s leadership where he is former Chairman of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and BioMed SA. He is also a former member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Advisory Board. Mr. Cisneros has been inducted into the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) “Builders Hall of Fame”.

Additionally, Mr. Cisneros has authored or edited several books, which include Interwoven Destinies: Cities and the Nation. His book with former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Opportunity and Progress: A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy, was presented the Common Purpose Award for demonstrating the potential of bipartisan cooperation, and Casa y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal in the category of best business book of 2006. In 2017, he co-authored Building Equitable Cities. In 2021, he co-authored A Bottom-Up Infrastructure Strategy for American Renewal and The Texas Triangle: An Emerging Power in the Global Economy. 

Mr. Cisneros holds a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University, where he is a Distinguished Alumnus. He earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, was a graduate assistant in urban economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holds a doctorate in Public Administration from George Washington University, and has been awarded more than 20 honorary doctorates from leading universities. Texas A&M University at San Antonio is the site of the Cisneros Center for Emerging Leaders. 

Mr. Cisneros served as an infantry officer in the United States Army. He is married to Mary Alice P. Cisneros, who from 2007 to 2011 served on San Antonio’s City Council. They have three children — Teresa, Mercedes, and John Paul — and four grandchildren. ✯