Brad Jacobs (entrepreneur)

Bradley "Brad" Jacobs (born August 3, 1956 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American businessman. He is executive chairman of XPO Logistics, Inc., non-executive chairman of GXO Logistics, non-executive chairman of RXO, and managing director of Jacobs Private Equity, LLC. 
==Early life and education==
Jacobs was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, Bennington College and Brown University.
==Career==
Jacobs has created seven billion-dollar or multi-billion-dollar corporations, including five publicly traded corporations: XPO Logistics and its spin-offs, GXO Logistics in 2021 and RXO in 2022; United Rentals; and United Waste Systems.
Over the course of his career, Jacobs has led teams that completed approximately 500 acquisitions and 250 greenfield openings. He has raised more than $25 billion in debt and equity capital financing, including two IPOs. As of September 2022, Jacobs had a net worth of $3.7 billion as estimated by Forbes.
===Amerex Oil Associates, Inc.===
Seeing the large profits being made in oil trading, Jacobs cold-called his way into the industry securing Ludwig Jesselson, head of Philipp Brothers, as his mentor. In 1979, Jacobs co-founded Amerex Oil Associates Inc., an oil brokerage firm. He served as Amerex's chief executive officer until the firm was sold in 1983. Amerex was one of the largest oil brokerage firms in the world when it was sold in 1983, with annual gross contract volume of $4.7 billion .
===Hamilton Resources Ltd.===
In 1984, Jacobs moved to London and founded Hamilton Resources Ltd., an oil trading company. In founding the company, Jacobs had used the bulk of his savings and a $1 billion line of credit from Banque Paribas. 
===United Waste Systems, Inc.===
In 1989, Jacobs founded United Waste Systems in Greenwich, Connecticut, and began consolidating small garbage collectors that had overlapping routes in rural areas. Jacobs served as chairman and chief executive officer, and in 1992 he took the company public. In August 1997, after the company had made more than 200 acquisitions, Jacobs sold United Waste Systems to USA Waste Services Inc. (now Waste Management, Inc.) for $2.5 billion. At the time of sale, 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 chief executive officer. He took the company public three months later on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol URI. Jacobs grew United Rentals through a strategy of consolidating equipment rental dealers in North America. In the 10 years that Jacobs led the company (1997-2007), the company completed more than 250 acquisitions and its stock outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 2.2 times. 
===XPO Logistics, Inc.===
In 2011, Jacobs invested approximately $150 million in Express-1 Expedited Solutions, a third-party provider of transportation and logistics services that traded at the time on the American Stock Exchange as XPO. He assumed the roles of chairman of the board and chief executive officer, 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 Ticker symbol|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 turned XPO into a $15 billion global company. XPO reported revenue of $16.3 billion in 2020.
Jacobs was ranked the Best CEO in Transportation in Institutional Investor's 2022 All-America Executive Team awards. In 2018, he was ranked 10th on Barron's list of the World's Best CEOs, 7th on Glassdoor's Top CEOs of 2018 list in France, and 20th on Glassdoor's Top CEOs in the UK.
In December 2020, Jacobs announced plans to spin off XPO's logistics segment as GXO Logistics, creating two, independent companies: XPO as a provider of freight transportation services and GXO as the world's largest pure-play provider of contract logistics services. The spin-off was completed in August 2021. Jacobs became non-executive chairman of GXO's board of directors and remained chairman and CEO of XPO.
In March 2022, XPO announced plans to spin off its brokerage and other services segment as RXO, creating two independent companies: XPO as a provider of less-than-truckload transportation services and RXO as the fourth largest broker of full truckload transportation services in the United States. The spin-off was completed in November 2022. Jacobs became non-executive chairman of RXO's board of directors.
In August 2022, Jacobs announced plans to step aside as CEO of XPO Logistics, but remain executive chairman. He explained, "Every decade or so, I reinvent myself and find another industry to create outsize shareholder value, and XPO is set up for long-term success. When the time comes to focus on the next big thing, there will be no shortage of opportunities to create massive shareholder value.”
==Personal life==
Jacobs and his wife live in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Category:American people
Category:American businesspeople
Category:1956 births