HF Sinclair Corporation has appointed Steve Ledbetter as Chief Executive Officer and President, effective on the first of January 2027. The Dallas-based energy company announced the decision on 28 October 2026, following a board resolution two days earlier.
Ledbetter has been President and Chief Operating Officer of HF Sinclair since July 2026. He joined the company in March 2023 as Executive Vice President, Commercial, and has spent more than 25 years in leadership roles across energy, transportation and consumer services. Before joining HF Sinclair he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Shell Midstream Partners GP LLC, having previously led the commercial organisation at Shell Midstream. Earlier in his career he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Jiffy Lube International. He holds a degree in finance and financial management services from Texas A&M University.
Leldon Echols, the company's lead independent director, said the appointment reflects the board's thoughtful and deliberate succession planning process, and cited Ledbetter's commercial and operational leadership as giving him a deep understanding of the refining, renewables, marketing and midstream businesses.
The transition is structured rather than abrupt. Franklin Myers continues as Chief Executive Officer through the first of January 2027 to support the handover, and then remains an officer of the company and Executive Chairperson until the planned separation of the lubricants and specialties segment is complete, advising on strategic matters relating to it. Myers said it had been an honour to serve as chief executive and described his successor as the right leader to guide the company through its next chapter.
Ledbetter said he has tremendous confidence in the company's people, its assets and its ability to execute, and named safety, reliability, commercial excellence and disciplined capital allocation as his priorities.
The company said the board expects to increase its size and appoint Ledbetter as a director at a future date. No compensation arrangements were approved alongside the appointment, and the company said it will file an amended report covering any material arrangement once agreed.
For executives watching the sector, the appointment matters because of what sits on the incoming chief executive's desk on day one. The planned separation of the lubricants and specialties segment is the defining structural question at the company, and the decision to keep the outgoing chief executive on as executive chairperson specifically to see that separation through is an unusually explicit division of labour. It leaves Ledbetter to run the refining, renewables, marketing and midstream businesses while the portfolio question is handled alongside him rather than by him.
The operating base he inherits is substantial. The company runs refineries in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Washington and Utah. It supplies fuel to more than 1,850 branded stations and licenses the Sinclair brand to more than 350 additional locations. It produces renewable diesel at three facilities, two in Wyoming and one in New Mexico, and its subsidiaries produce base oils and specialty lubricants in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, exporting to more than 80 countries.
HF Sinclair is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Texas under the ticker DINO, and is headquartered on Victory Avenue in Dallas.
