Kelcy Warren Steps Back as Energy Transfer Eyes Its Future
Kelcy Warren stepped down as chief executive of Energy Transfer in 2020, but he has hardly disappeared from the company he built. Warren now serves as executive chairman and chairman of the board, a perch from which he continues to shape the direction of a business that operates nearly 125,000 miles of pipeline across the country.
New Leaders, Same Culture
Day to day operations now fall to Mackie McCrea and Tom Long, who share the co-chief executive role. McCrea first joined Energy Transfer in 1997 and most recently served as president and chief commercial officer before his promotion, while Long moved up from chief financial officer, a job he had held since 2016. Kelcy Warren leadership culture he helped build as one defined by constant conversation and shared decision making, traits he expects McCrea and Long to carry forward even as he steps back from daily management.
A Long Overdue Honor
The transition comes as Warren is being recognized with the top honor in D CEO’s 2023 Energy Awards program, a nod to Energy Transfer’s growth from a small East Texas gas operator into a company that moves about 30 percent of the nation’s natural gas and petroleum. Warren has never been especially interested in polishing his own image, and he tends to deflect questions about his legacy rather than lean into them.
Asked what he hopes people will eventually say about him, Kelcy Warren points not to deal size or revenue figures but to character. He says he hopes that one day, around a table, his son will hear someone describe him simply as tough but fair, a straight shooter who built one of the country’s largest energy infrastructure companies while insisting that the people around him deserved just as much credit as he did. Even with the award, the leadership change and decades of acquisitions behind him, Warren still talks about Energy Transfer as unfinished business, a company he expects will keep growing well beyond his own tenure at the top. Read this article, for related information.
Learn more about Kelcy Warren on https://www.energytransfer.com/leadership/