“I think Kelcy is such a unique man.”
Mackie McCrea saved that line for the closing minutes of Energy Transfer’s Nov. 3 third-quarter earnings call, his last as co-chief executive. As the call wrapped up, he turned to the company’s co-founder, Kelcy Warren, and to the career Warren set in motion for him nearly three decades ago.
McCrea pointed to Warren’s aggressiveness and competitiveness and to what he called a “never-give-up attitude.” His own father had a similar drive, he said, though not Warren’s “massive vision.”
Warren’s been recognized outside the company, too. He was honored in Hart Energy’s 2023 Hall of Fame, part of the trade publisher’s 50th-anniversary series on people who shaped the industry.
How Kelcy Warren Hired Mackie McCrea
McCrea said he met Warren for a brief interview, was asked to come back in two weeks, and gave notice at his job as a landman before he joined. He also credited Warren and Ray Davis with starting the business on a small East Texas pipeline system.
Energy Transfer’s records fill in the rest. McCrea arrived in 1997 as senior vice president of business development and producer services, his company biography shows. He later ran the midstream business, served as president and chief operating officer of Energy Transfer Operating and became group chief operating officer and chief commercial officer. He’s held a board seat since December 2009, and he still carries the chief commercial officer title alongside his co-CEO role.
The company he joined was small. It was started with 20 employees and a 200-mile pipeline system in East Texas, as the Texas Stock Exchange noted when Energy Transfer moved its primary listings there in October. Today it runs more than 140,000 miles of pipe in 44 states and has about 12,000 employees.
Energy Transfer CEO Succession Moves to Tom Long
McCrea’s exit completes a handoff that began six years ago. In October 2020, Energy Transfer said McCrea and Tom Long, then its chief financial officer, would be named co-CEOs effective Jan. 1, 2021. Kelcy Warren kept his roles as executive chairman and chairman of the board.
“I could not be more proud to pass the reins to Mackie and Tom,” Warren said in the 2020 announcement. He added that he would “continue to be intimately involved in the strategic growth of Energy Transfer.”
In June, the partnership disclosed that McCrea plans to retire on or before Dec. 31 and that Long will then become sole CEO. McCrea will stay on the board, the company’s 8-K filing shows. On the call, he said Long would be sole CEO starting in January.
The partnership’s recent run has drawn outside recognition. D CEO named Energy Transfer its 2026 Energy Company of the Year in August, citing its work building infrastructure for Texas power and data center growth, and the magazine counts Kelcy Warren among its past Legacy Award recipients. The third quarter added to the record, with adjusted EBITDA up 31% from a year earlier.
McCrea didn’t pretend the goodbye was easy. “I hate leaving,” he told analysts. He called the moment bittersweet.
He won’t be going far. The board seat McCrea has held since 2009 stays with him after Dec. 31.
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