Melanie Little is the President and Chief Executive Officer for Colonial Pipeline Company, the largest refined petroleum products pipeline system in the United States. She joined Colonial Pipeline in January 2023 with more than two decades of experience in the energy industry. 

Prior to joining Colonial, Melanie served as the Chief Operating Officer at Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., with responsibility for assets in 15 states, consisting of 12,000 miles of pipelines, 55 terminals, and a team of more than 1,400.

Before being promoted to COO, Melanie served in various leadership roles at Magellan, with the opportunity to lead teams in operations, commercial, and compliance. 

Prior to joining Magellan in 2004, she worked for The Williams Companies, Inc. She previously held project management positions in the areas of environmental remediation as a contractor for the Department of the Army. Melanie is a Veteran, serving in the U.S. Army, Army Reserve, and the Georgia National Guard.

Melanie holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from the United States Military Academy and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

In 2023, Melanie joined the Board of Directors of Cenovus Energy (CVE), the second-largest Canadian oil and natural gas producer, refiner, and upgrader. She serves on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute – the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry – and the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association. Melanie also serves on the National Petroleum Council.

Melanie previously served on the boards of Diversified Energy Company (DECPF), where she chaired the Remuneration Committee, Discovery Lab, where she chaired the Exhibits Committee, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Clay Miller is Colonial’s senior vice president and chief financial officer. He is responsible for the company’s financial operations and related controls, and supports its commitment to safe and reliable operations, profitable growth, and disciplined cost management. He has more than 20 years of experience that include private-to-public company transactions and executing post-transaction plans of transformation, securing capital for growth and operating needs, installing acquisition and integration capabilities, managing relationships with financial regulators, and implementing cost-management practices. 

Clay leads the company’s strategic analysis, treasury, accounting, tax, financial regulatory reporting, project management office, and procurement functions. Under Clay’s leadership the company recently completed the construction of its new corporate headquarters facility and primary command center. Clay previously served as the company’s corporate controller. He has fostered high-performance teams and more broadly enhanced the culture through initiatives that assess and develop potential talent.

Prior to joining Colonial in 2013, Clay served as vice president and corporate controller of a leading chemical manufacturer, marketer, and service provider he helped guide through a spin-off that rendered it an independent public company. Following this transaction, Clay helped lead transformational cost-reduction initiatives that enabled the company to recapitalize and initiate an acquisition-based growth strategy that added new lines of business and expanded the company’s operations globally. Clay began his career in public accounting where he held positions at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. 

Clay earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as a master’s degree in accountancy from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. He holds a master’s in business administration from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. In addition, Clay is a certified public accountant. He has been a member of various professional organizations throughout his career and has served on the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association’s Accounting Committee. And Clay was recently named to the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business CFO Roundtable Advisory Board.

David Gray is Colonial’s senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary. He is an experienced executive with over 20 years of diverse experience in the energy sector, including leading legal, commercial, risk, audit, compliance, and regulatory groups with a focus on the safe, reliable, and profitable transportation and storage of fuels. His experience includes high-growth environments in heavily regulated energy businesses, and he has deep experience in setting and driving business strategy, building and leading high-performing teams, building trusted relationships with partners, regulators, and stakeholders, and driving top-performing cultures of ethics, compliance, and safety. 

David leads the company’s Legal, Audit, Enterprise Compliance, and Information Governance groups, and is actively engaged in representing the company with various industry groups, including Liquid Energy Pipeline Association (LEPA). David has more than 25 years of legal experience in complex regulatory environments, primarily focused on the energy industry. 

Prior to joining Colonial in 2019, David was senior vice president for the midstream business of EQT Corporation, one of the largest midstream providers in North America. In this role, he was responsible for business development, asset optimization, and the rates and regulatory departments. Under David’s leadership, the midstream business experienced record growth, driven by large-scale and transformational greenfield builds and asset optimization projects, which ultimately resulted in the successful IPO of Equitrans Midstream Corporation. He also was instrumental in building strong relationships with partners, regulators, and stakeholders. 

During his tenure at EQT, David also served as general counsel for Equitable Gas Company, providing the legal oversight of the sale of that business, and assistant general counsel for midstream and commercial. He provided extensive legal oversight in various areas, including regulatory, commercial, corporate governance, litigation, and environmental matters. Prior to EQT, he was assistant general counsel for FirstEnergy and Allegheny Energy, Inc., and he has approximately 12 years of experience in private law practice with several firms. 

David is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics. He holds a juris doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. 

Jamie Chapman came to Colonial in 2021 to lead the Engineering and Asset Integrity teams after spending nine years with Kinder Morgan, directing engineering and project management teams on primarily liquid refined products pipelines coast to coast and internationally.

Prior to his work with Kinder Morgan, Jamie’s background includes additional engineering leadership roles, project management, and design experience with engineering consulting firms. 

He began his career serving six years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he earned multiple awards for outstanding service and performance and separated as a Captain. In addition, he holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology and earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Tulane University.

Jamie now leads the Technical Services group, which is comprised of our Asset Integrity, Engineering, Corporate and Field Project Management teams. 

Jamie is a current member of the Pipeline Research Council International Executive Assembly and participates in the American Petroleum Institute and the API Committee on Pipeline Standards.

As Colonial Pipeline’s Vice President of People and Communications, Chris Smith is responsible for leading Colonial’s human resources (HR) strategy and operations, including total rewards, talent acquisition, leadership and employee development, employment practices and HR technology, and enterprise communications. 

Chris joined Colonial in July 2018 as the Director of People Technology and Business Intelligence with over 20 years of experience. She is a results-oriented leader who motivates and encourages her teams to partner cross-functionally to deliver strategic initiatives. During her tenure, Chris has been promoted into additional leadership positions including Chief of Staff and Senior Director of People Technology and Process Improvement as well as Vice President, People Services and Rewards. 

Prior to joining Colonial, Chris served in various roles across different industries, leading teams with a focus on HR transformation, project management, system implementations and process improvement. Chris began her career at Accenture where she managed and consulted with multiple clients to deliver successful projects across people, process and technology. 

Chris is a graduate of Florida State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS).

Afshean Talasaz is a senior vice president and Colonial’s Chief Technology and Data Officer. He leads the Technology team as well as the Optimization, Efficiency & Innovation team. He joined Colonial Pipeline in March 2023. 

Before joining Colonial, Afshean served as the Director of Digital Innovation and Enterprise Architecture at Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., with responsibility for Digital Innovation, Data, Architecture, Cloud, and Technology Strategic Partnerships across the enterprise. 

Prior to his role at Magellan, Afshean served in various leadership roles in the upstream sector in Corporate Planning, Strategic Planning, M&A, Data Science & Advanced Analytics, and Digital Transformation. 

Afshean holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma. He also serves on the board of the Oklahoma Center for Non-Profits.