Henry Cisneros

Several factors contributed to his decision. The same year, his son, John Paul Anthony, named for the pope, was born with congenital asplenia syndrome; instead of the normal four chambers, the heart functioned as if it had only two. As a result, the blood that cycled through the baby’s system was poorly oxygenated and threatened to flood his lungs as the heart grew. The condition also meant the child was born without a spleen and was 50 times more likely to contract a fatal infectious disease. Cisneros desired to devote more time with his ailing son, whose doctors had given roughly six years to live and whose life would be filled with major surgeries. Read Less

That company evolved to become CityView where Cisneros is currently Executive Chairman. His duties at CityView include overseeing the urban institutional investment firm which finances commercial and residential developers, with more than $2 billion in transactions from 45 projects in 30 markets across 13 states.

Cisneros serves as a co-chair of the Housing Commission at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The eldest child of George and Elvira (née Munguia) Cisneros, Henry Gabriel Cisneros was born in San Antonio, Texas, in a neighborhood that bordered the city’s predominantly Mexican west side barrio (now the city's inner west side). Cisneros was named after his mother’s youngest brother who developed Hodgkin’s disease at the age of 14 and asked from his deathbed that his sister give his name to her son. He is descended on his father’s side from early Spanish settlers in New Mexico. His expatriate mother was the daughter of Romulo Munguia, a renowned Mexican dissident journalist, printer and intellectual who fled his native country in 1926 due to the Mexican Revolution and oppressive regime of Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. Cisneros’ father, who came from a family of small farmers and migrant workers who had settled in Colorado after losing their Spanish land grant during the Great Depression was a federal civil servant and later an Army colonel who met Elvira Munguia while he was stationed in San Antonio. As his parents survived great adversity and advanced through life with an unfailing belief in hard work, education merit leading to a better life, Cisneros along with his two brothers and two sisters were raised in a highly structured environment that put emphasis on scholarly studies and the arts. Read Less