Joe Craft | |
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 Joe and Kelly Craft in 2018 | |
| Born | October 13, 1950 Hazard, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Kentucky (BS, JD) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Employer(s) | Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
Joseph Craft III (born 1950) [1] is an American businessman. He is the president and chief executive officer of Alliance Resource Partners, L.P., the third-largest coal producer in the eastern United States. [2] [3]
Craft received an undergraduate degree in accounting in 1972 from the University of Kentucky, and then earned a JD degree in 1976 from the University of Kentucky College of Law. [4] [5] Craft was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. [4]
Craft's wife, businesswoman and former US Alternate Delegate to the United Nations Kelly Craft, was in 2017 appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Canada by Donald Trump. [6] In 2019 she became the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, also appointed by President Trump. [6] [7] The couple have six children and, as of 2018, 11 grandchildren. [8]
Craft began his career at Mapco Inc, a pipeline company that had diversified into other energy sectors, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. [9] In 1985, he was elected senior vice president of legal and finance. [10] In 1986, Craft became head of the coal division at Mapco. [9]
In 1996, Craft led a management buyout of the unit. [11] The buyout involved Mapco selling a 75% stake in the coal division to the Beacon Group Energy Investment Fund. [9] [12] [13] The new company was called Alliance Coal LLC. [14] [11]
In 1999, he led the effort to take Alliance public. [9] In August 1999, he became president and chief executive of Alliance. [15] In January 2019, while already president and chief executive officer of Alliance Resource Partners' general partner, he also assumed the additional role of chairman of the general partner's board of directors. [14] [16]
In 2019, Alliance started mining under I-70 near the West Virginia state line with Pennsylvania. The long wall mining is expected to last until 2038.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Craft had given more money to Democratic candidates at the state level of office between 2008 and 2019 than to Republican candidates. [17] In January 2012, Craft donated around $500,000 to Restore Our Future, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. [18] On July 11, 2016, Craft hosted a private fundraiser for Donald Trump at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky. [19] Through a trust, Craft contributed $1 million to the Trump presidential inaugural committee. [20]
In 2015 Joe Craft and his wife Kelly Craft co-founded the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Kentucky's Morehead State University, a special program for academically exceptional high school students. [21] By 2019 they had committed over $10 million to the Academy. [22]
After Craft pledged $6 million toward the completion of the project, the Joe Craft Center, a state-of-the-art basketball practice facility for the Kentucky Wildcats men's and women's basketball teams, was named for him. This was the largest private gift in the history of UK Athletics. [23]
The Joe Craft Tower, a wing of the Hazard ARH Hospital in Hazard, was completed and opened in 2014. [24] Craft donated $1 million to the project. [24]
In 2014, he donated $5 million for "A Gathering Place for Tulsa", a park to be built along the city's Arkansas River waterfront. [25]
In 2016, he donated $4.8 million for the construction of the facility housing the day-to-day University of Kentucky football operation. [26]
In 2019, he made a $3 million gift to support the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise, in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, of the University of Kentucky. [27]
In 2022, he made a $7.5 million gift to renovate the University of Kentucky football team's indoor practice facility. [28]
Craft has taken the Giving Pledge, pledging "to give the vast majority of my resources to philanthropic causes and charitable endeavors targeted to people and organizations that embrace individual responsibility, economic freedom, reducing poverty and providing opportunities for those willing to chase the American dream." [29] [30]
Craft was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2007. [31] In 2008, Craft was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southwest Region energy, chemical, and mining category. [32] In 2009, Craft was inducted into the University of Tulsa's Collins College of Business Hall of Fame. [33] In 2010, he was inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Law Hall of Fame. [34] In 2018, he was inducted into the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. [35]
Perry County is a county in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,473. Its county seat is Hazard. The county was founded in 1820. Both the county and county seat are named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval hero in the War of 1812.
Martin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,287. Its county seat is Inez. The county was founded in 1870 and is named for Congressman John Preston Martin.
Hazard is a home rule-class city in, and the county seat of, Perry County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,263 at the 2020 census.
Teck Resources Limited, known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including coal for the steelmaking industry, copper, zinc, and energy. Secondary products include lead, silver, gold, molybdenum, germanium, indium and cadmium. Teck Resources was formed from the amalgamation of Teck and Cominco in 2001.
Donald Leon Blankenship is an American businessman. He was chairman and CEO of the Massey Energy Company—the sixth-largest coal company in the United States—from 2000 until 2010 when an explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine resulted in the death of 29 workers. He served one year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards.
Peabody Energy is a coal mining company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its primary business consists of the mining, sale, and distribution of coal, which is purchased for use in electricity generation and steelmaking. Peabody also markets, brokers, and trades coal through offices in China, Australia, and the United States.
Delek US Holdings, Inc. is a diversified downstream energy company with assets in petroleum refining, logistics, asphalt, renewable fuels and convenience store retailing headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.
The Joe Craft Center, opened in January 2007, is a basketball practice facility and athletics office building attached to Memorial Coliseum on the "Avenue of Champions" at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
Rocky J. Adkins is an American politician from Kentucky. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is serving as a senior advisor to the Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear. He is a former member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, representing the 99th District of the Kentucky House from 1987 to 2019. His House district was in eastern Kentucky and included Elliott, Lewis, and Rowan Counties. From 2003 through 2016, he was the House Majority Leader. From 2016 to 2019, he was the chamber's Minority Floor Leader.
Coal mining is an industry in transition in the United States. Production in 2019 was down 40% from the peak production of 1,171.8 million short tons in 2008. Employment of 43,000 coal miners is down from a peak of 883,000 in 1923. Generation of electricity is the largest user of coal, being used to produce 50% of electric power in 2005 and 27% in 2018. The U.S. is a net exporter of coal. U.S. coal exports, for which Europe is the largest customer, peaked in 2012. In 2015, the U.S. exported 7.0 percent of mined coal.
The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization that honors jazz, blues and gospel musicians in the state of Oklahoma. Housed in the former Tulsa Union Depot, which it now calls the Jazz Depot, the Hall of Fame is a music venue that hosts regular jazz performances. It is also a museum, displaying photographs, biographical information, artifacts, and memorabilia from musicians such as Chet Baker, Earl Bostic, Don Cherry, Charlie Christian, Tommy Crook, Pat Kelley, Barney Kessel and Jimmy Rushing.
The Paradise Combined Cycle Plant is a natural gas power plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Located just east of Drakesboro, Kentucky, it was the highest power capacity power plant in Kentucky. The plant originally consisted of three coal units, with a combined capacity of 2,632 MW. Units 1 and 2 were retired in 2017, and replaced with the natural gas units, and Unit 3 was retired in 2020. The combined cycle natural gas plant had a capacity of 1.02-gigawatts as of 2017.
Joseph Columbus Davis Jr. was an American businessman and tennis player.
Jackson Kelly PLLC, known as Jackson Kelly, is a full service law firm and one of the 250 largest law firms headquartered in the United States. The firm, which has a strong presence in Appalachia and the Midwestern United States, was formed in 1822 when Benjamin H. Smith began practicing law in what was then Charleston, Virginia. U.S. News & World Report ranks the firm as the nation's best in mining and mineral law, but as a full-service law firm, Jackson Kelly provides legal counseling and litigation to a wide range of clients across many practice areas. The firm employs more than 160 lawyers in offices throughout West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Colorado.
Kelly Dawn Craft is an American businesswoman, politician, and former diplomat who served as the 30th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2019 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. She was confirmed as the US ambassador to the United Nations by the US Senate by a vote of 56–34, and was officially sworn in September 2019.
The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics is a two-year residential early college high school serving approximately 146 academically exceptional high school juniors and seniors at Morehead State University (MSU). The students live in Craft Tower and earn dual credits as they complete their last two years of high school at the Academy while at the same time taking at least 60 credit hours of college-level courses, with tuition, room and board, and meal plan all free of charge. The Academy is funded in large part by Joe Craft and Ambassador Kelly Craft, who have donated over $10 million to the Academy, the largest donation in MSU history.
The 2020 United States presidential election in Kentucky was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Kentucky voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate California Senator Kamala Harris. Kentucky has eight electoral votes in the Electoral College.
The 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2023, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Kentucky. Incumbent Democratic governor Andy Beshear won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. If Cameron had won, he would have become Kentucky's first African-American governor.
George Maxwell Wise is an American politician and former FBI agent, serving as a member of the Kentucky Senate from the 16th district. He assumed office in the Kentucky Senate on January 1, 2015. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft chose Wise to be her running mate in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election. The pair subsequently lost the primary.
The 2024 Kentucky Republican presidential primary was held on May 21, 2024, as part of the Republican Party primaries for the 2024 presidential election. 46 delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention will be allocated on a proportional basis. The contest was held alongside the Oregon primary.
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