Bradley S. Jacobs

Bradley “Brad” Jacobs (born August 3, 1956) is an American businessman and billionaire.  He is the chairman and CEO of XPO Logistics, Inc. and the managing director of Jacobs Private Equity, LLC.  Jacobs is best known for consolidating companies in the waste management, equipment rental, and transportation and logistics industries.  He has led approximately 500 acquisitions and 250 cold-starts over the course of his career, and raised more than $25 billion in debt and equity financing. 

Early life and education
Jacobs was born to a Jewish family in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Charlotte Sybil (née Bander) and Albert Jordan Jacobs.  His father was a jewelry importer.  He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, Bennington College and Brown University, but dropped out of school in 1976 to broker oil contracts. 

Career

Amerex Oil Associates, Inc.

In 1979, at the age of 23, Jacobs co-founded Amerex Oil Associates Inc., an oil brokerage firm with offices in New Jersey, Houston, London, and Tokyo.  He served as its CEO until the firm was sold in 1983.  In that time, the company's annual gross contract volume grew to approximately $4.7 billion. 

Hamilton Resources (UK) Ltd.

In 1984, Jacobs moved to London and founded Hamilton Resources (UK) Ltd., an oil trading company, using the bulk of his savings and a $1 billion line of credit from Banque Paribas.  As chairman and chief operating officer, he grew the company to approximately $1 billion in annual revenue, before quitting the business in 1988 and moving back to the United States. 

United Waste Systems, Inc.

In July 1989, Jacobs founded United Waste Systems in Greenwich, Connecticut, planning to consolidate small garbage collectors that had overlapping routes in rural areas.  Jacobs served as chairman and CEO, and in 1992 he took the company public on the NASDAQ.  In August 1997, after the company had made more than 200 acquisitions, Jacobs sold United Waste Systems to USA Waste Services Inc. (now known as Waste Management, Inc.) for $2.5 billion.  At the time of the sale, United Waste Systems was the fifth-largest solid waste management company in North America and its stock had outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 5.6 times since its IPO. 

United Rentals, Inc.

In September 1997, Jacobs formed United Rentals, serving as the new company's chairman and CEO.  As with United Waste, Jacobs planned to grow United Rentals through a rollup strategy, consolidating small equipment rental dealers across North America.  The company went public in December 1997, and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.  Jacobs stepped down from United Rentals in August 2007.  In the 10 years that Jacobs led the company, United Rentals outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 2.2 times.  It had become the 536th largest public corporation in America, as ranked by Fortune magazine, with $3.9 billion in revenue and 690 locations.  Jacobs had engineered approximately 500 acquisitions by this point in his career, including more than 250 for United Rentals. 

XPO Logistics, Inc.

On September 2, 2011, Jacobs completed an investment of about $150 million in Express-1 Expedited Solutions (trading at the time as AMEX: XPO), a third-party logistics and transportation service provider.  He assumed the roles of chairman of the board and CEO, gained ownership of approximately 71 percent of the company, and renamed it XPO Logistics.  Jacobs listed the company on the New York Stock Exchange, retaining the ticker symbol "XPO". 

In February 2012, Jacobs announced plans to grow XPO's revenue from $175 million to $5 billion within five years through M&A. By the end of 2016, he had spearheaded 17 acquisitions and turned XPO into a $15 billion company.  XPO reported revenue of $17.28 billion in 2018. 

Personal life
Jacobs is married to Lamia Jacobs, an oil trader originally from France; they have four children. 

Awards and recognition
In March 2009, Jacobs was inducted into the American Rental Association's Hall of Fame.  He was named American Shipper's Person of the Year on November 25, 2015, and was listed among the Best CEOs of the 2016 All-America Executive Team one week later.  On December 11, 2017, Jacobs received the 2017 Connie Award from the Containerization and Intermodal Institute (CII). 

Jacobs has been recognized in multiple readers' choice surveys by Glassdoor and Barron's.  In May 2018, he was ranked 10th on Barron's list of the World's Best CEOs, while in June Jacobs was listed 7th on Glassdoor's Top CEOs of 2018 list in France, and 20th in the UK. 

References

Category:20th-century American businesspeople
Category:21st-century American businesspeople
Category:American billionaires
Category:American businesspeople in shipping
Category:American businesspeople in the oil industry
Category:American chief executives
Category:American financiers
Category:American Jews
Category:American investors
Category:American trucking industry businesspeople
Category:Businesspeople from Connecticut
Category:Businesspeople from Providence, Rhode Island
Category:1956 births
Category:Living people
Category:Northfield Mount Hermon School alumni
Category:Bennington College alumni
Category:Brown University alumni