When Barry Davis stepped down from his role as CEO of Dallas-based EnLink a year and a half ago, the oil and gas shale industry was in full throttle and midstream companies had emerged as the prettiest girl at the dance. An average $63 in oil prices, record production and an on-going demand for oil and gas infrastructure further galvanized midstreamers to build and expand those vital bones.

But this previous CEO wasn’t content to sit on the sidelines.

Taking a seat as executive chairman on the EnLink board, Davis had a lot to be proud of after leading the company’s remarkable growth from 2014-2018. He watched the company flourish to more than 12,000 miles of gathering and transportation pipelines, 21 processing plants, numerous barge and rail terminals, storage facilities and an extensive crude oil trucking fleet. All of these in the core areas of Texas, NM., Okla., La., the Gulf Coast, and across the Ohio River Valley. In the four years under Davis’ leadership, EnLink became a Fortune 500 company with more than $7 billion in revenues.

But true visionaries are hard to replace no matter what the successes of their incumbent. And in the case of EnLink, Barry Davis brought the passion and foresight to write the next chapter of the company he helped form. In August, Davis reclaimed his position as CEO to accelerate EnLink’s growth strategy in what is now a hyper-challenging environment of oversupply, lower oil and gas prices, and decreased volumes across the pipeline.

Although EnLink projects a net loss for this year, Davis has created an execution strategy already in progress to respond to the industry’s market conditions, including $75 million in cost reductions and a 50% cut in 2020 capital expenditures. Hard not to rally around a man with a plan.

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