Brad Jacobs (businessman)

Last updated

Brad Jacobs
Born (1956-08-03) August 3, 1956 (age 68)
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Education Northfield Mount Hermon School
Alma mater Bennington College
Brown University
OccupationBusinessman
Known for

Brad Jacobs (born August 3, 1956) is an American businessman who serves as chairman and CEO of QXO, Inc. [1] [2] In addition, he is executive chairman of XPO, Inc., [3] [4] and non-executive chairman of RXO, Inc. and GXO Logistics [5] both of which are spin-off companies from XPO, Inc..

Contents

Early life and education

Jacobs was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Charlotte Sybil (née Bander) and Albert Jordan Jacobs. [6] [7] His father was a fashion jewelry importer. [7] He graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School and then went on to attend Bennington College and Brown University and studied math and music; however, he dropped out in 1976. [8] [9]

Career

Jacobs has created eight corporations, six of which are publicly traded: QXO (2024); XPO, Inc. (2011) and its spin-offs, GXO Logistics (2021) and RXO (2022); United Rentals, Inc. (1997); and United Waste Systems, Inc., now Waste Management, Inc. (1989). [10]

In 1979, [11] Jacobs co-founded Amerex Oil Associates, Inc., an oil brokerage firm. [12] Jacobs was the company's CEO until it was sold in 1983. [13] [14] In 1984, Jacobs moved to London and founded Hamilton Resources, Ltd., where he conducted oil trading deals. [14] Jacobs has frequently recognized Ludwig Jesselson as an influential mentor. [15] [16]

In 1989, Jacobs founded United Waste Systems in Greenwich, Connecticut, and began consolidating small waste collection companies that had overlapping routes in rural areas. Jacobs was chairman and chief executive officer, and in 1992 he took the company public. [17] [18] Jacobs sold United Waste Systems to USA Waste Services, Inc. for $2.5 billion in August 1997. [13]

In September 1997, Jacobs formed United Rentals, and became the new company's chairman and chief executive officer. [19] During late 1997 and early 1998, Jacobs grew the company through a strategy of consolidating equipment rental dealers in North America. [20] [21] He took the company public in December 1997 on the New York Stock Exchange. [15]

In 2010, he established Jacobs Private Equity LLC to invest in a single company. [22] [23] [24]

In 2011, Jacobs invested approximately $150 million in XPO, Inc. (then named Express-1 Expedited Solutions), a transportation and third-party logistics provider. [23] [25] He became chairman of the board [26] [5] and CEO [27] [28] and gained ownership of approximately 71 percent of the company. [29] The company was later listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol XPO, Inc. [30] In August 2021, XPO, Inc. completed its spin-off of GXO Logistics, and Jacobs became non-executive chairman of GXO's board of directors. [31] [32] [33] In August 2022, Jacobs announced plans to step aside as CEO of XPO, Inc. but remain executive chairman. [34] [5] In November 2022, XPO, Inc. completed its spin-off of RXO, and Jacobs became RXO's non-executive chairman. [5] In 2023, he announced the upcoming release of his book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. [35]

In June 2024, Jacobs founded QXO with the intention to consolidate the $800 billion building products distribution industry. [36] With the launch, he raised more than $5 billion of equity, [37] [38] including what Bloomberg called the largest equity offering ever in the building products sector and private investment in public equity for industrials. [38] In November 2024, Ashwin Rao was introduced as Chief AI Officer, a role to explore the use of Artificial Intelligence. [39]

Bibliography

Personal life

Jacobs and his wife live in Greenwich, Connecticut. [15] Jacobs is an art collector with works by Picasso, de Kooning, Calder, Lichtenstein and others. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Bezos</span> American businessman (born 1964)

Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. He is the second wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of US$251 billion as of December 17, 2024, according to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He was the wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Schmidt</span> American businessman and software engineer (born 1955)

Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the executive chairman of parent company Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017, and technical advisor at Alphabet from 2017 to 2020. As of December 2024, he was 45th wealthiest according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index with an estimated net worth of US$37.8 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkshire Hathaway</span> American multinational conglomerate holding company

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger (1978–2023). Greg Abel now oversees most of the company's investments and has been named as the successor to Buffett. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryder</span> American transportation company

Ryder System, Inc. is an American transportation and logistics company, specializing in truck rental and leasing, fleet management, supply chain management, and transportation management. It also offers full-service leasing, rental and maintenance, used vehicle sales, transportation management, professional drivers, e-commerce fulfillment, and last-mile delivery services. The company is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, and operates in the United States and United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertz Global Holdings</span> American car rental company

Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., known as Hertz, is an American car rental company based in Estero, Florida. The company operates its namesake Hertz brand, along with the brands Dollar Rent A Car, Firefly Car Rental and Thrifty Car Rental.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Khan</span> Russian-Ukrainian businessman

German Borisovich Khan is a Ukrainian-Israeli-Russian oligarch, billionaire, and businessman. After graduating from university in 1988 he worked in a wholesale business selling consumer items, before setting up his own cooperative. He was then appointed the head of the wholesale trade business Alfa Eco as part of the Alfa Group Consortium, by his college friend Mikhail Fridman. Alfa Group, which he also shares with another fellow billionaire and college peer, Alexei Kuzmichev, is the biggest financial and industrial investment group in Russia. He became president of Alfa Eco in 1996 and was instrumental in directing the company to focus on export and the oil trade. When Alfa bought Tyumen Oil (TNK) in 1997, he joined the board of directors. He was deputy chairman of TNK Oil Company from 1997 until 2003. In 2003, Khan worked with the other TNK owners to form a 50–50 joint venture with BP, in what was the largest foreign investment in Russia to date, at US$8 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher A. Sinclair</span> American businessman (born 1950)

Christopher A. Sinclair is an American businessman. He is the chairman of Reckitt. He is the former chairman and CEO of Mattel. Previously, he was chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.

United Rentals, Inc. is an American equipment rental company, with about 16 percent of the North American market share as of 2022. It owns the largest rental fleet in the world with approximately 4,700 classes of equipment totaling about $19.3 billion in original equipment cost (OEC) as of 2022. The company has a combined total of 1,625 locations, including an integrated network of 1,504 rental locations in North America, 38 in Europe, 23 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico and in every Canadian province. In 2017, United Rentals' revenue totaled more than $6.64 billion, with over $1.35 billion in profit. It is ranked #424 on the Fortune 500, #1183 on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest public companies, and is the world's largest equipment rental company.

Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean-based French multinational commodities company, with major regional hubs in Geneva, Houston, Montevideo and Mumbai, founded in 1993. The company trades in base metals and energy. It is the world's largest private metals trader and second-largest oil trader having built or purchased stakes in pipelines, mines, smelters, ports and storage terminals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacer International</span>

Pacer International, also known as Pacer Stacktrain, is the former name of a major North American provider of intermodal services, was owned by XPO, Inc. which later sold it in 2022 to STG Logistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Con-way Freight</span> Logistics company

Con-way Freight was a less-than-truckload (LTL) motor carrier headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, utilizing a network of freight service centers to provide regional, inter-regional and transcontinental less-than-truckload freight services throughout North America. The business unit provided day-definite delivery service to manufacturing, industrial and retail customers. Con-way Freight was the largest division of Con-way, Inc. with 16,600 employees, more than 365 operating locations, 16,000 dock doors and 32,750 tractors and trailers. The company was founded by Consolidated Freightways (CF) of Portland, Oregon, as a non-union spinoff, for LTL hauling. In 2009, Con-way Freight reported revenues of over $2.6 billion. In 2015, Con-way Inc., including Con-way Freight and sibling company Con-way Truckload, was acquired by XPO, Inc., a primarily non-asset logistics company from Greenwich, Connecticut, in a deal worth $3.5 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XPO, Inc.</span> American transportation company

XPO, Inc. is an American transportation company that conducts less-than-truckload shipping in North America. The company has headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, and has 564 locations globally.

Bradley A. Keywell is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He is the founder and executive chairman of Uptake Technologies, an industrial AI software provider. He is an early investor of Tempus Labs, co-founder of Groupon, Echo Global Logistics, Mediaocean, DRIVIN, and Lightbank. He founded WNDR Museum and Chicago Ideas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Haslam</span> American businessman

James Arthur Haslam III is an American businessman and sports executive. He is the chairman of the board of the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain. He and his wife Dee own the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL), the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer (MLS), and a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Haslam has won two MLS Cup Championships as owner of the Crew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aneel Bhusri</span> Indian-American business executive

Aneel Bhusri is an American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Workday. He is also a partner at Greylock Partners and was a member of Intel's board of directors between 2014 and 2019. Bhusri has been a billionaire since 2014; as of 2021 he has a net worth of $3.1 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lineage (company)</span> International warehousing and logistics management corporation

Lineage, Inc. is the world's largest temperature-controlled warehouse real estate investment trust (REIT), owned by Bay Grove, LLC. Entering international markets in 2017, Lineage grew into the world's largest refrigerated warehousing company with a capacity exceeding 3 billion cubic feet and acquiring more than 100 companies through the end of 2023. Lineage operates over 450 facilities across 18 countries, with approximately 26,000 team members globally in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urstadt Biddle Properties</span>

Urstadt Biddle Properties, Inc. was a real estate investment trust based in Greenwich, Connecticut that primarily invested in shopping centers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. As of October 31, 2021, the company owned interests in 79 properties comprising 5.1 million square feet of gross leasable area. The company was merged with Regency Centers Corp on August 18, 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clipper Logistics</span> Logistics company based in Leeds

Clipper Logistics plc is a retail logistics company based in Leeds which serves retailers selling fashion, tobacco, alcohol and other high-value goods in the UK and Europe. It has 47 sites across Europe. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by GXO Logistics in May 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GXO Logistics</span> American contract logistics and warehousing company

GXO Logistics, Inc. is an American global contract logistics company that manages outsourced supply chains and warehousing, and reverse logistics for blue-chip customers in over thirty countries. GXO's corporate headquarters are located in Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. Its customers include Apple, Nike Inc., Boeing Co., Verizon, Whirlpool, and Nestle SA.

References

  1. ↑ Staff, HBSDealer. "QXO announces executive lineup". HBS Dealer. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Startup Building Products Distributor Officially Launches". Industrial Distribution. June 6, 2024. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  3. ↑ Lublin, Joann (November 27, 2022). "XPO's Billionaire Chairman Brad Jacobs Is Hunting for His Next Big Deal". Time. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  4. ↑ Black, Thomas (October 17, 2022). "Brad Jacobs Is on the Hunt. Investors Should Pay Attention". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Young, Liz (August 4, 2022). "Brad Jacobs Will Step Aside as CEO of XPO Logistics". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Charlotte Sybil (Bander) Jacobs (1929–2013)". The Providence Journal. April 8, 2013.
  7. 1 2 "Albert Jordan Jacobs (1927–2018)". The Providence Journal. May 31, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Near Misses". Forbes. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  9. ↑ "From sapling to pure-play LTL: The story of XPO Logistics under Jacobs". Trucking Dive. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Bradley Jacobs: The maestro of mergers". Forbes India. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  11. ↑ "The big bet of Brad Jacobs". www.dcvelocity.com. Retrieved April 8, 2023. At 23, Jacobs co-founded Amerex Oil Associates Inc., a New Jersey-based oil brokerage firm, and served as its CEO until the firm was sold in 1983.
  12. ↑ "June 4, 2005 Entrepreneur tells of unknown future". StamfordAdvocate. May 10, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  13. 1 2 "The big bet of Brad Jacobs". DCVelocity. January 9, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
  14. 1 2 "Greenwich's XPO Logistics CEO candid about French acquisition". StamfordAdvocate. July 27, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Gara, Antoine (April 10, 2018). "Better Than Amazon? How Bradley Jacobs Turned A $63M Bet Into A $12 Billion Transportation Empire". Forbes (magazine). Retrieved July 1, 2018. He read up on oil brokers and then cold-called his way into the business, enlisting the legendary Ludwig Jesselson, head of commodity house Phillip Brothers, as a mentor.
  16. ↑ "An Acquiring Mind". Inbound Logistics. October 2015. My mentor, Ludwig Jesselson (a longtime commodity trader and philanthropist), once told me that if you genuinely enjoy solving problems, then you should choose business as a profession
  17. ↑ "United Rentals, Inc. – Company History". Fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  18. ↑ "StackPath". www.rermag.com. July 2000. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Chief Executive Plans to Leave United Rentals". The New York Times. September 30, 2003. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  20. ↑ Lipin, Steven (June 17, 1998). "United Rentals Business Bores Everyone Except Shareholders". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  21. ↑ "The earth mover". Forbes. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  22. ↑ "Wealthiest People in CT: 10. Bradley Jacobs". www.hartfordbusiness.com. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  23. 1 2 "Jacobs puts $150 million into Express-1, aims big". Reuters. June 14, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Jacobs completes equity investment; Express-1 now XPO Logistics". Commercial Carrier Journal. September 3, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Express-1 Expedited Solutions Announces First Quarter 2011 Conference Call". NBC News. May 5, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  26. ↑ "XPO's Billionaire Chairman Is Hunting for His Next Big Deal". Time. November 27, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  27. ↑ "The big bet of Brad Jacobs". dcvelocity.com. January 9, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  28. ↑ A. Ananthalakshmi (October 6, 2011). "DealTalk: Brad Jacobs: a U.S. transport serial acquirer". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 9, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  29. ↑ Zimmerman, Kevin (November 17, 2017). "XPO Logistics: Fast growth through acquisitions and management style". Westfair Communications. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  30. ↑ "Jacobs has big plans for Express-1 expediter". GreenwichTime. February 7, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  31. ↑ "Fortune 500 company XPO Logistics' revenues jump 44% before spin-off: 'The future looks bright'". GreenwichTime. July 29, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  32. ↑ "Spin-off of GXO Logistics from XPO Logistics is a done deal". Logistics Management. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  33. ↑ "XPO completes spinoff of GXO, which begins trading today". Westfair Communications. August 2, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  34. ↑ Young, Liz (August 4, 2022). "Brad Jacobs Will Step Aside as CEO of XPO Logistics". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  35. ↑ Hall, Phil (October 16, 2023). "M&A, Brad Jacobs-style". Westfair Communications. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  36. ↑ Young, Liz (December 11, 2023). "Brad Jacobs Targets Construction Materials for Next Billion-Dollar Rollup". WSJ.
  37. ↑ Castenson, Jennifer (June 17, 2024). "Big Investment In Building Products Promises To Transform The Industry". Forbes.
  38. 1 2 Porter, Kiel (June 13, 2024). "Billionaire Jacobs Nears $3.5 Billion QXO Equity Offering". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  39. ↑ Bousquette, Isabelle (November 7, 2024). "QXO Hires an AI Chief to Help Sell Items Like Pipes and Lumber". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
  40. ↑ "Billionaire Brad Jacobs reveals his recipe for building a business empire | Fox Business Video". Fox Business. October 2, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.