Larry Heard

Larry Heard gets his message across as leader of Transwestern, the Houston-based developer, investor and service provider that has accounted for more than 150 projects and accrued billions of dollars in assets under management since its founding in 1978.

He’s a regular on the company’s internal “Coffee Break” interview feature on its YouTube channel, giving employees insights into his leadership as CEO, a tenure now in its third decade. Backing up his talk is another hallmark for Heard – consider how he got 2023 started with a deal to acquire MB Real Estate in Chicago, a move that expanded Transwestern’s property management presence in both a major metro and a key region. At the time he signaled that more deals could be expected as Transwestern pushed for growth. He then completed acquisitions of office brokerages MGA Inc. and West, Lane & Schlager in Washington, D.C. within a month.

Property transactions are a different story, and one recent deal saw Heard’s outfit sell a property on the front end of a flip that ultimately brought notoriety to match the profit turned on the back end of the deal. Transwestern and a partner got $57.5 million for a 518,000-square-foot warehouse property in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in September of 2024, then saw it fetch $87 million early this year in a sale to U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that’s become a lightning rod of criticism for its heavy handed raids under the Trump Administration.

—Rachel Stone