Tulsa based Alliance Resource Partners, L.P., a major coal-mining operation in the U.S. has reached out to a Houston oil and gas firm to hire an executive to focus on Alliance’s own oil and gas ventures.
Alliance announced Kirk Tholen, who once was a consultant for Devon Energy has joined the executive team as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategic Officer and will serve as President of the company’s oil and gas minerals segements.
He will report to Joseph W. Craft III, who is Chairman, President and CEO and will assist him in the development of the company’s strategic initiatives.
Working with the senior executive team, Mr. Tholen’s responsibilities will include creating viable business opportunities for ARLP’s coal business, building its emerging oil & gas minerals business and executing enterprise-wide business strategies and operating plans for long-term growth.
Tholen most recently served as a Managing Director within the Oil & Gas Group and Head of the Acquisitions and Divestitures (“A&D”) Practice for Houlihan Lokey in Houston. From 2012 to 2015, he was Head of A&D for Credit Agricole CIB and was responsible for creating and leading their A&D platform to service domestic and cross-border client transactions as well as assisting in reserve-base lending, equity offerings and high yield debt offerings.
From 2006 to 2012, Mr. Tholen provided business development, marketing, transaction management, negotiating and closing services to clients at Albrecht & Associates, Inc., a sell-side E&P boutique advisory firm. His previous industry experience also includes serving as a Region Engineer for BJ Services from 1996 to 2006, where he provided drilling and fracturing technical services to clients operating in the lower 48 and Gulf of Mexico predominately as a dedicated in-house engineer focused on drilling and completions for BP, Conoco and Devon.
