Kirk Tholen

Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.

President of Alliance Royalty, LLC & SVP

Kirk Tholen became SVP and Chief Strategic Officer in December 2019 and also serves as President of ARLP's oil & gas minerals business. Prior to his current position, Mr. Tholen most recently served as a Managing Director within the Oil & Gas Group and Head of the Acquisitions and Divestitures 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. His previous industry experience includes serving as a Region Engineer for BJ Services from 1996 to 2006, predominately as a dedicated in-house engineer focused on drilling and completions for BP, Conoco and Devon. Mr. Tholen began his career in 1992 joining UNOCAL's Louisiana inland waters and and reservoir engineering team. He holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston.