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Date and Location
Jamel McMullin
San Antonio and Austin, TX are experiencing unprecedented growth in population, employment, new business, manufacturing, and more. What does this mean for the “megaregion” anchored by the two cities? What can be done to sustain the economic and quality-of-life factors that led to this expansion? Henry Cisnersos and his co-authors explore these questions and more in a new book, The Austin–San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Challenge in the Lone Star State.
Join the Taubman Center for State and Local Government for a fireside chat with Cisneros, HKS alum, former Mayor of San Antonio, and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, as he discusses the economic development opportunities and challenges in the Texas megaregion and what it can mean for other such regions across the country.
Guest Speaker:
Henry Cisneros is Founder and Senior Advisor of American Triple I, an infrastructure investment firm based in New York. He is also a Vice Chairman of the Board of Shank Williams Cisneros & Co., L.L.C, the holding company of a national municipal and corporate finance firm. Mr. Cisneros also 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, building more than 7,000 homes with a total value of over $5 billion.
Mr. Cisneros’ community-building career began at the local level. After serving three terms as a City Councilmember, 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 was selected as the “Outstanding Mayor” in the nation by City and State Magazine. After completing four terms as Mayor, Mr. Cisneros formed Cisneros Asset Management Company, a fixed income management firm operating nationally and ranked at the time as the second fastest growing money manager in the nation.
In 1992, President Clinton appointed Mr. Cisneros to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet, Secretary Cisneros has been credited with initiating the revitalization of many of the nation’s public housing developments and with formulating policies which 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, the Spanish-language broadcaster which has become the fifth-most-watched television network in the nation. Mr. Cisneros served on Univision’s Board of Directors until 2020. Mr. Cisneros has served as President of the National League of Cities, as Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and as 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 a former member of the advisory board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mr. Cisneros holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, and a Doctorate in Public Administration from George Washington University.