Kelcy Warren stepped down as chief executive of Energy Transfer in 2020, a full twenty four years after he co-founded the company with Ray Davis as a small intrastate gas operator in East Texas. He did not leave the business behind. Warren moved into the roles of executive chairman and chairman of the board, staying close to major decisions while handing day to day operations to a new leadership team.

Two Executives, One Company

Mackie McCrea and Tom Long now share the co-CEO title at Energy Transfer, a structure Kelcy Warren helped put in place. McCrea has deep roots at the company, having joined back in 1997, just a year after Warren and Davis got started, and most recently served as president and commercial officer before stepping into his current role. Long came up through the finance side, holding the chief financial officer title since 2016 before his promotion. Between them, the two executives carry decades of institutional knowledge about how Energy Transfer’s roughly 125,000 miles of pipeline actually operate.

Kelcy Warren’s decision to step back from day to day duties came during a period of considerable change for the company, including the 2020 pandemic demand shock and the run up to the 2021 Enable Midstream acquisition. He has continued to weigh in publicly on the industry’s direction, from LNG exports to the Permian’s long term outlook, and remains closely associated with the company’s culture of fast decision making. Colleagues describe a management style built on gathering people in a room, trading ideas openly, and then committing quickly once a direction becomes clear, a habit Kelcy Warren has carried from the company’s earliest years into its current leadership structure. Warren has said the company’s culture matters as much to him as any single pipeline or acquisition, and the choice to promote from within, rather than bring in outside executives for the top roles, reflects that priority as clearly as any public statement could. Visit this page for more information.

Find more information about Kelcy Warren on https://www.hartenergy.com/hall-fame/2023/kelcy-warren/