Joe Craft

Joseph Craft III
Joseph Craft III
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, Chief Executive Officer
Known for	President and CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Joe Craft, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 11 August 2025

Joseph Craft III (born 1950) is a prominent American entrepreneur serving as the president and chief executive officer of Alliance Resource Partners, L.P., recognized as the third-largest coal producer in the eastern United States.

Personal life

Craft obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting in 1972 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1976 from the University of Kentucky, where he was affiliated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. His spouse, Kelly Craft, a business executive and former US Alternate Delegate to the United Nations, was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Canada in 2017 and subsequently served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations starting in 2019, both appointments occurring during President Donald Trump’s administration. Together, they have six children and, as of 2018, eleven grandchildren.

Career

Craft’s professional journey began at Mapco Inc, an energy company based in Tulsa with operations spanning pipeline and other energy sectors. By 1985, he had advanced to senior vice president overseeing legal and financial matters and was promoted to lead Mapco’s coal division in 1986.

In 1996, Craft orchestrated a management buyout of Mapco’s coal operations, with Mapco divesting a 75% interest to the Beacon Group Energy Investment Fund. The newly formed company was named Alliance Coal LLC. He then led Alliance’s initial public offering in 1999 and assumed the roles of president and CEO that August. By January 2019, Craft had also taken on the position of chairman of the board for the general partner at Alliance Resource Partners.

In 2019, Alliance commenced longwall mining activities beneath Interstate 70 near the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border, with production projected to extend through 2038.

Political activism

According to reports from the Lexington Herald-Leader, Craft contributed more financially to Democratic candidates at the state level between 2008 and 2019 than to Republican contenders. In January 2012, he donated approximately $500,000 to Restore Our Future, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. Additionally, Craft is known as a supporter and donor to Donald Trump; on July 11, 2016, he hosted an exclusive fundraiser for Trump at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky. Through a trust arrangement, he provided $1 million to Trump’s presidential inaugural committee.

Philanthropy

In 2015, Joseph Craft and his wife Kelly established the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Morehead State University, designed for gifted high school students. By 2019, their financial commitment to this academy exceeded $10 million.

Following a $6 million pledge toward its construction, the Joe Craft Center, a cutting-edge basketball training facility for both men’s and women’s teams of the Kentucky Wildcats, was named in his honor—representing the largest private donation ever received by UK Athletics.

The Joe Craft Tower at Hazard ARH Hospital was inaugurated in 2014 after his $1 million contribution. That same year, he donated $5 million toward "A Gathering Place for Tulsa," a park situated along the Arkansas River waterfront. In 2016, Craft gave $4.8 million to support development of the University of Kentucky football operations center.

In 2019, he allocated $3 million to aid the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at UK’s Gatton College of Business and Economics. Later in 2022, he made a $7.5 million gift dedicated to refurbishing the University of Kentucky football team’s indoor practice facility.

Craft has committed to the Giving Pledge, vowing to allocate most of his fortune toward initiatives that foster personal accountability, economic liberty, poverty alleviation, and opportunity expansion.

Awards

In 2007, Craft was honored with induction into the Tulsa Hall of Fame. The following year, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Southwest Region, specifically in the energy, chemical, and mining sector. In 2009, he earned a place in the University of Tulsa Collins College of Business Hall of Fame. His accolades continued with induction into the University of Kentucky College of Law Hall of Fame in 2010 and later, in 2018, into the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.

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