Laurence E. Hirsch, Chairman

Mr. Hirsch co-founded Highlander Partners in April 2004 after he retired from the position of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Centex Corporation, one of the largest homebuilding and related financial services companies in the U.S at that time (in 2009 Centex was acquired by Pulte Homes Inc.). Mr. Hirsch had served as Centex’s CEO since 1988 and as Chairman since 1991. He joined the company in 1985 as President, COO and a Board member.

During Mr. Hirsch’s 18-year tenure as CEO, 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.

Prior to Centex, Mr. Hirsch served as President, CEO, and a director of Southdown, Inc., a cement and oil and gas producer. Mr. Hirsch successfully transformed Southdown, Inc. from a struggling conglomerate into the country’s premier domestically-owned cement producer, which was later acquired by Cemex, S.A. de C.V.

Prior to that, he was a partner at Bracewell and Patterson, a Houston-based law firm.

Mr. Hirsch holds a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as well as a J.D., cum laude, from the Villanova University School of Law and a Masters Degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Mr. Hirsch currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP), a construction products company, and has been a director of a number of other publicly-traded companies. From December 2008 until March 2012, he was a director of Freddie Mac. He is also Chairman of the Center for European Policy Analysis and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Mr. Hirsch received a Bene Merito award from the government of Poland in 2010 and the Founders Award from Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2011.