Propane Personality: DD Alexander

DD Alexander

President, Global Gas

EDUCATION

Texas Christian University (TCU)
Bachelor’s in Business
Class of 1981
Master of Business Administration
Class of 1985

WORK EXPERIENCE

1989-Present
Global Gas
⦁ President

1981-89
Burke Energy
⦁ Marketing Manager, Northeast

Alexander grew up in Kansas but spent time in Texas and Michigan and eventually landed in Colorado, where Global Gas is based.

A changing industry

Alexander cites three key changes to the propane supply business over the years:

1. Automation making operations run more smoothly.
2. The shale revolution providing a quicker turnaround in shipping propane barrels to their endpoint.
3. The U.S. propane industry becoming part of a global market.

DD Alexander celebrates Global Gas’ 10-year anniversary in 1999 with Teresa Dorroh. (Photo from LP Gas archives)

“I’ve been on both sides of the coin. I know how important it is for retail owners to get their loads, and if something happens, we try and call them first. … Growing up in the industry definitely has helped me in the role I play today.”

Click here to watch a video interview with DD Alexander and LP Gas Editor-in-Chief Brian Richesson.

A father’s influence

Prior to starting Global Gas, Alexander gained significant experience working with her dad, Marty Burke, who had his hands in many facets of the propane industry.

“It got in my blood early,” she says. “I did everything from mowing the grass at the plant, to painting tanks, to entering data, anything, just to learn the business.”

Alexander says her dad, who died in 1999, was “a great mentor to me. He was really a big thinker and really thought outside the box.”

In business, she adds, it’s important to have the big thinkers like her dad but also people who are detail oriented, as she describes herself. “You have to look at the details to be a strong company and one that’s really focused around the customers and also the employees.”

A 1989 to remember

Alexander says she always wanted to pursue a career in business and own a company, a goal she fulfilled by starting Global Gas in 1989, a year with one of the coldest winters on record. The company was busy from the outset, trucking propane to the hard-hit Northeast, where it developed a loyal customer base. The year was big for Alexander: She also got married.

DD Alexander chairs the National Propane Gas Association’s Propane Supply & Logistics Committee. (Photo by LP Gas staff)

‘Historian of NPGA’

Alexander has contributed decades of volunteer work to the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA). She currently serves as the chair of the Propane Supply & Logistics Committee. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the historian of NPGA because I can tell people why we did things.” The words of a “wise professor” at TCU stuck with Alexander – you must continue to educate yourself. “I’ve really taken that to heart,” she says. “I read everything I can; I go to every seminar; I go to all the meetings; I talk to our customers all the time because I enjoy those relationships. That’s how I learn. So, I hope that not only am I the historian to the NPGA, [but] I’m also able to give them new, fresh ideas, even though I’ve been around for quite a while.”

The next generations

Alexander’s son, Connor, works in the business, calling on customers in the Northeast while living in Philadelphia. “I’m actually working with the fourth generation of some of these families that I’ve sold to for decades,” she says. “It’s really fun when Connor can go in and see some of these people and hear about different things in the industry. It’s exciting for me, and it’s exciting for him.”

Hobbies

Family and travel occupy Alexander’s time away from the office. She attends TCU football games and also enjoys playing tennis.