Joe Craft

Joseph Craft III (born 1950) 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. 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. Craft was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. 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. In 2019 she became the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, also appointed by President Trump. The couple have six children and, as of 2018, 11 grandchildren. Craft began his career at Mapco Inc, a pipeline company that had diversified into other energy sectors, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1985, he was elected senior vice president of legal and finance. In 1986, Craft became head of the coal division at Mapco.