THE WOODLANDS, Texas—Summit Midstream Partners LP Aug. 9 announced that its board of directors has appointed J. Heath Deneke to serve as president and CEO of Summit Midstream Partners LLC, effective Sept. 16, 2019. Deneke will also join the board of directors of Summit Midstream GP LLC. Leonard Mallett, who has been serving as president and CEO of Summit Midstream Partners on an interim basis since February 2019, will continue to serve as the company’s COO and will report to Deneke.

Deneke joins Summit Midstream Partners from Crestwood Equity Partners, where he most recently served as executive vice president, COO and a member of the office of the chairman since August 2017, where he was responsible for commercial development and operations of its midstream businesses, including assets in the Bakken, Barnett, Fayetteville, Marcellus, Powder River and Permian basins. 

Deneke commented, “I am excited to lead the Summit Midstream team and work with the board to deliver our strategic plan, including strengthening the balance sheet, executing our growth projects and improving our competitive position in our core focus areas. I look forward to getting to know our people, meeting with our stakeholders and working to enhance unitholder value.”

Peter Labbat, director of SMLP and managing partner at Energy Capital Partners, SMLP’s largest unitholder, said, “We are very pleased to welcome Heath as Summit's new chief executive. After an extensive search, the board is confident that he has the right mix of industry knowledge, experience and leadership skills to lead Summit into the future for the benefit of our customers, partners, employees and unitholders.”

Labbat continued, “We also want to thank Leonard for taking on the additional responsibility of serving as Summit’s President and CEO on an interim basis. His leadership was invaluable during this period of transition, and we look forward to his continued contributions as our chief operations officer.”

Prior to his role as EVP and COO of Crestwood Equity Partners, Deneke served as the COO and president of Crestwood’s Pipeline Services Group from June 2015 to August 2017, as president, natural gas business unit of Crestwood’s general partner from October 2013 to June 2015 following the close of the Inergy/Crestwood merger and as senior vice president and chief commercial officer of Legacy Crestwood from August 2012 until October 2013. Prior to that, Deneke served in various management roles at El Paso Corp. and its affiliates starting in 1996, including vice president of project development and engineering for the pipeline group, where he was responsible for the planning and execution of over $8 billion in expansion projects. At El Paso, he also served as director of marketing and asset optimization for Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC and manager of business development and strategy for Southern Natural Gas Co. LLC.

Deneke holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Auburn University. He serves on the board of directors for Bay West Environmental and Bradford Airport Logistics and is a member of the Houston Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.