Bradley S Jacobs

Early life and education

Jacobs was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His father was a jewelry importer. He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, Bennington College and Brown University in the 1970s, but dropped out to broker oil contracts.

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, and 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 went to England 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 Stock Market. In August 1997, after the company had made 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 sale, United Waste Systems was the fifth-largest solid waste management company in North America, outperforming the S&P 500 Index 5.6 times over and delivering a 55% compound annual rate of return from its initial public offering to its sale to USA Waste Services.

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 began acquiring companies in October 1997 with the purchase of six small leasing outfits.

United Rentals went public in December 1997, and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

In June 1998, United Rentals acquired U.S. Rentals Inc. for a sum variously reported at $1.2 billion and $1.31 billion, creating the largest equipment rental company in North America. By October 1999, Jacobs’ personal wealth had reportedly increased to $590 million, putting him just short of making the Forbes 400 list that year.

Jacobs utilized information technology to integrate the company’s geographically disparate rental outlets and reduce the unnecessary discounting of rental rates. Jacobs also introduced a business-to-business website where companies could research, rent and buy equipment.

In September 2003, Jacobs announced that he planned to step down as CEO of United Rentals at the end of the year, that he would continue on as executive chairman, and that he would remain the company’s largest non-institutional private shareholder.

In July 2007, Jacobs signed a definitive merger agreement for United Rentals to be acquired by affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management LP for $6.6 billion, including the assumption of $2.6 billion in debt obligations. The merger fell through four months later, in November 2007, when Cerberus backed out of the deal due to the weakened U.S. credit market. United Rentals sued in an attempt to force Cerberus to complete the transaction, but in December the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the merger agreement allowed Cerberus to walk away as long as it paid a $100 million breakup fee, which it did.

By August 2007, United Rentals had become the 536th largest public corporation in America, as ranked by Fortune magazine. Jacobs announced that month that he was stepping down as the company's chairman and director. During its 10 years under Jacobs' direction, United Rentals' stock outperformed the S&P 500 Index 2.2 times over.

At this point in his career, Jacobs had engineered approximately 500 acquisitions, including more than 250 rental companies for United Rentals.

XPO Logistics, Inc.

On June 14, 2011, Jacobs announced his intention to lead an investment of up to $150 million in Express-1 Expedited Solutions (trading at the time as AMEX: XPO), a third-party logistics and transportation service provider.

The investment was completed on September 2, 2011, with Jacobs assuming the roles of chairman of the board and chief executive officer, and gaining ownership of approximately 71 percent of the company. He announced plans to move the headquarters from Michigan to Greenwich, Connecticut and to change the company's name to XPO Logistics, retaining the symbol XPO on the New York Stock Exchange. On October 12, 2011, Jacobs rang the bell to open the Exchange.

Acquisitions and investments

During his tenure as CEO, Jacobs has overseen a number of acquisitions and investments by and for XPO, turning it into a company with more than 50,000 customers, served by over 89,000 employees in 1,431 locations spread across 34 countries.

By this point in his career, Jacobs had spearheaded over $20 billion in fundraising for various corporations, including more than $14 billion for XPO.

Consolidation

After its 2015 purchase of Con-way, XPO's share prices dropped 33%, as Con-way was considered a poor performer in the industry despite its size. Jacobs called a halt to XPO's growth-by-acquisition strategy and turned the company's focus to consolidation: rebranding purchased trucks, prioritizing customer service and e-commerce, and strengthening XPO's internal culture.

In the wake of Jacobs' decision, XPO posted a full year of profits for the first time since 2011, and saw its stock increase by 61% in 12 months. In 2017, it was listed by Transport Topics as the #1 third-party logistics provider in North America, and as #191 on the Fortune 500.

In June 2017, Jacobs announced plans for up to $8 billion in new acquisitions, effectively ending the consolidation period.

Personal life

Jacobs is married with four children.

Awards and recognition

In March 2009, Jacobs was inducted into the American Rental Association’s Hall of Fame.

On November 25, 2015, Jacobs was named American Shipper’s Person of the Year.

On December 2, 2015, Jacobs was listed among the Best CEOs of the 2016 All-America Executive Team.