Maxxam Inc. CEO dies in Texas boating accident

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Shawn Hurwitz, the chief executive officer of Houston investment firm Maxxam Inc., was killed in an Austin-area boating accident over the weekend, a spokesman for the family said on Monday.

"At this time and with heavy hearts we can confirm that Shawn Hurwitz passed away last night in an incident on Lake Austin," J. Kent Friedman, a family spokesman said in a statement.

The boat carrying five people appears to have hit a barge, with a man in his 50s pronounced dead at the scene, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical said without giving the names of anyone involved in the accident.

Three of the victims sustained injuries that were not life threatening and a woman in her 20s was taken by helicopter to a local hospital for treatment, they said. That woman later died, the Austin American-Statesman newspaper said.

The company works in agricultural products, chemicals and real estate.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Doina Chiacu)