Kelcy Lee Warren (born November 9, 1955) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

and the chairman and chief executive officer of

Energy Transfer Partners Energy Transfer LP is an American company engaged in natural gas and propane pipeline transport. It is organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in 1995 by Ray Davis and Kelcy Warren, who remains Cha ...

Early life

Born in

Gladewater, Texas Gladewater is a city in Gregg and Upshur counties in the U.S. state of Texas with a 2020 census population of 6,134. In the early 20th century, Gladewater was an oil boom town. In 1995, the Texas Legislature proclaimed it the "Antique Capital o ...

, Warren grew up in

White Oak, Texas White Oak is a city in Gregg County, Texas, United States. It was incorporated in 1960. The population was 6,225 as of 2020. History In the late 1800s White Oak was a small farming community with three sawmills located on thick forested land ...

, the youngest of four sons of Hugh Brinson Warren and Bertie Lee Kirby. His father worked as a field hand for Sun Pipeline, a company now owned by Warren. Warren went to White Oak High School. He received a bachelor's degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

from the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...

in 1978.

Career

He started his career working for the Lone Star Gas Company. From 1981 to 1992, he worked for Endevco. He served as executive vice-president Cornerstone Natural Gas from 1989 to 1990, and as president and CEO from 1993 to 1996. He has been the co-chairman and co-CEO of Energy Transfer Partners since 2007. He also serves as member of the management council of ETP Enogex Partners LLC, co-CEO of ETC OLP, co-CEO and co-chairman of La Grange Energy and of US Propane LLC. He is a former co-chairman of Le Gp, OEC Compression. From 1996 to 2000, he sat on the board of directors of Crosstex Energy. He serves on the advisory board of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington. In 2007, he bought the bankrupt Lajitas Resorts in

Lajitas, Texas Lajitas is an unincorporated community in Brewster County, Texas, United States, near the Big Bend National Park. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 75 in 2010. History The settlement is named after the Boquill ...

, as a

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

investment. Warren purchased the Roatan Electric Company (RECO) in 2008, where he serves as president and chairman of the board. RECO invested $7 million on a wind farm that was scheduled for completion in 2017. Warren is chief executive officer and chairman of

. Warren also serves as chairman of the general partner of Energy Transfer Equity. Prior to the combination of the operations of ETP and Heritage Propane in 2004, Warren co-founded the entities that acquired and operated the

midstream The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and downstream. The midstream sector involves the transportation (by pipeline, rail, barge, oil tanker or truck), storage, and wholesale marketing of crud ...

natural gas pipeline Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...

s that were contributed in the merger. From 1996 to 2000, Warren served as a director of Crosstex Energy, Inc. and from 1993 to 1996, he served as president, chief operating officer and a director of Cornerstone Natural Gas, Inc. Warren has more than 25 years of business experience in the energy industry. In 2015, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas appointed Warren to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. In 2022, he ranked No. 289 on the ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' 400 list of the richest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $3.8 billion. Warren received a COVID stimulus check in 2020 as he had reported large losses previously.

Music

In 2007, he co-founded an independent record label, Music Road Records, with

Jimmy LaFave Jimmy LaFave (July 12, 1955 – May 21, 2017) was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. After moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, LaFave became a supporter of Woody Guthrie. He later became an Advisory Board member and regular performer ...

and Fred Remmert. He collects music memorabilia, and has a collection that includes

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

s of

Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...

and drumsticks signed by the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

Philanthropy

In 2020, ''Forbes'' gave Warren its lowest score for philanthropy, a "1." This indicates he was in the lowest 20% of billionaires rated. Warren has hosted the Cherokee Music Festival since it began in 2007. It is a nonprofit event to raise money for children's charities and local public service organizations. In 2012, Warren donated $10 million to help build

Klyde Warren Park Klyde Warren Park is a public park in Downtown Dallas, Texas. The park is over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and opened in 2012. It is named for Klyde Warren, the young son of billionaire Kelcy Warren who donated $10 million to the development of ...

in downtown

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. It is named for his son. As part of the contract, his son cleans up trash from the park once a month. The construction of the park cost about $90 million. Warren's gift was the largest, giving him naming rights. The Kelcy Warren Foundation supports the Caddo Lake Institution, an organization with the mission of protecting the ecological, cultural and economic integrity of

Caddo Lake Caddo Lake (french: Lac Caddo) is a lake and bayou (wetland) on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Caddoan ...

and its associated wetlands and watershed.

Political activity

Warren donated $6 million to

Governor Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republica ...

's presidential campaign. He also donated $103,000 to President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's 2016 campaign. He gave $1 million to

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 50th Tex ...

after the 2021 legislative session.

Personal life

Warren married the former Sherry Johnson on May 18, 1980, in

, and they divorced in 1991. He married Amy Hudson on June 3, 2010, in Dallas. He has one son, Klyde Warren. He lives in

Preston Hollow, Dallas Preston Hollow is a neighborhood in north Dallas, Texas, USA. It is bordered on the south by the city of University Park, Texas. History Beginning in the 1850s, the first settlers began receiving land grants for Preston Hollow’s land. Amon ...

on an 8+ acre estate on Park Lane valued at more than $30 million. In 2012, press reports indicated he owned an estate on an island off the coast of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. In 2010, he bought the 3,500-acre BootJack Ranch near

Pagosa Springs, Colorado The Town of Pagosa Springs (Ute dialect, Ute language: Pagwöösa, Navajo language: Tó Sido Háálį́) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat, the most populous community ...

, for $46.5 million. He also owns an 8,000-acre ranch near Cherokee, Texas, the 20,000-acre Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa in

, and a

private island A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and some ...

near

Roatán Roatán () is an island in the Caribbean, about off the northern coast of Honduras. It is located between the islands of Utila and Guanaja, and is the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras. The island was formerly known in English as Ruatan ...

. In 2020 Warren acquired Castletown Cox house and estate in County Kilkenny, Ireland for €12.6m.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Kelcy 1955 births Living people Businesspeople from Dallas American billionaires American chief operating officers University of Texas at Arlington alumni People from Gladewater, Texas People from Gregg County, Texas