When was XPO, Inc. founded?

XPO, Inc. was founded in 2011, in Greenwich, Connecticut by Brad Jacobs.

Who are the founders of XPO, Inc.?

The founder of XPO, Inc. is Brad Jacobs. The company was established in 2011 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Who is the current CEO of XPO, Inc.?

The current CEO of XPO, Inc. is Mario Harik.

Where was XPO, Inc. founded?

XPO, Inc. was founded in Greenwich, Connecticut in 2011 by Brad Jacobs.

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XPO, Inc.

Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Freight TransportationFounded 2011- Updated July 2025

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: July 2025

Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.

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XPO, Inc.

Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Freight TransportationFounded 2011- Updated July 2025

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: July 2025

Founders

Who Founded XPO, Inc.?

Q: Who founded XPO, Inc.?

XPO, Inc. was founded by Brad Jacobs in 2011 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Brad Jacobs · Founded 2011 · Greenwich, Connecticut

Last reviewed: July 2025 · By Swet Parvadiya

Quick Answer

XPO, Inc. was founded by Brad Jacobs in 2011 in Greenwich, Connecticut. The company is currently led by Mario Harik.

Founding Story

The origin of XPO, Inc. is not a story of a founder starting a trucking company in a garage; it is a story of a serial acquirer identifying a highly fragmented, technologically archaic industry and using the public markets to execute a relentless, mathematically driven roll-up strategy. The architect of this strategy was Brad Jacobs, a billionaire entrepreneur who had previously built United Rentals into the largest equipment rental company in the world by applying a ruthless, highly disciplined acquisition-and-integrate playbook. In 2011, Jacobs was looking for his next target and identified the $35 billion North American less-than-truckload (LTL) and truck brokerage market as the perfect canvas for his capital allocation strategy. The industry was dominated by a few massive, slow-moving incumbents and thousands of small, family-owned carriers who competed almost exclusively on price, utilizing pen-and-paper dispatching and refusing to invest in technology. Jacobs saw an opportunity to create a national powerhouse by acquiring these fragmented assets, overlaying them with a centralized technology stack, and extracting massive cost savings through network optimization. However, Jacobs did not want to go through the lengthy, expensive process of a traditional initial public offering (IPO). Instead, he sought out a publicly traded shell company that he could use as a vehicle for his acquisitions. He found his vehicle in Ohio Casualty Insurance, a struggling, legacy insurance company that had largely ceased its core operations and was trading as a micro-cap shell on the New York Stock Exchange. In December 2011, Jacobs and his investment vehicle, Jacobs Investments, acquired a controlling stake in Ohio Casualty, effectively taking over the public shell. He immediately renamed the company XPO Express, Inc., and began executing his strategy. The early days of XPO were defined by a series of small, highly accretive acquisitions. Jacobs started by buying small, regional trucking and logistics companies in the Northeast and Midwest, integrating them into a single, unified network, and using the public stock as currency to fund the deals. The breakthrough moment came in 2012 when XPO acquired 3PD, a rapidly growing, technology-enabled freight brokerage firm based in Georgia. This acquisition was transformative; it provided XPO with a massive book of business, a sophisticated technology platform, and a management team that understood how to utilize data to optimize freight flows. It also signaled to the market that XPO was not just another trucking company; it was a technology company that happened to move freight. Emboldened by the success of the 3PD integration, Jacobs accelerated the pace of acquisitions. In 2013, XPO acquired Pacer International, a major intermodal and truckload carrier, in a deal that significantly expanded XPO’s national footprint and added deep relationships with the major Class I railroads. This was followed by the massive, transformative acquisition of Con-way Inc. in 2015. Con-way was a top-tier LTL carrier with a pristine reputation, a highly dense terminal network, and a massive book of national accounts. The $3 billion acquisition of Con-way was the deal that transformed XPO from a mid-sized regional player into a true national powerhouse, instantly making it one of the largest LTL carriers in North America. However, the Con-way acquisition came with significant challenges. XPO had taken on a massive amount of debt to fund the deal, and the integration of Con-way’s unionized workforce and complex terminal network proved far more difficult than anticipated. The company’s stock price plummeted in 2016 as Wall Street punished XPO for its heavy debt load and the slower-than-expected integration cost savings. This period of intense pressure from activist investors and short-sellers forced Jacobs to pivot the company’s strategy, shifting the focus from relentless, debt-fueled acquisitions to organic network optimization, technology investment, and aggressive debt reduction. This pivot laid the foundation for the modern XPO, a company that learned the hard way that in the asset-heavy world of freight, operational discipline and technological superiority are far more valuable than sheer size.

Brad Jacobs

Co-founder 2011

Background

Brad Jacobs is a billionaire entrepreneur and serial acquirer who previously built United Rentals into the largest equipment rental company in the world by applying a ruthless, highly disciplined acquisition-and-integrate playbook. In 2011, he identified the fragmented, technologically archaic North American trucking industry as the perfect canvas for his capital allocation strategy, acquiring a struggling micro-cap shell company (Ohio Casualty Insurance) to serve as a vehicle for a relentless roll-up strategy. His defining founding philosophy was that the LTL industry’s inefficiencies could be solved not by organic growth, but by acquiring terminal networks, lane density, and customer contracts, then overlaying them with a centralized technology stack to extract massive cost savings through network optimization.

Role at XPO, Inc.

Brad Jacobs founded XPO, Inc. in 2011 by acquiring a controlling stake in Ohio Casualty Insurance, a struggling micro-cap shell company, which he renamed XPO Express and utilized as a vehicle for a relentless acquisition strategy. Over the next decade, Jacobs executed over 50 acquisitions, including the transformative $3 billion purchase of Con-way Inc. in 2015, building XPO into a global logistics titan with over $30 billion in annual revenue at its peak. Jacobs is widely regarded as one of the most successful capital allocators in modern corporate history, having previously built United Rentals from a startup into the largest equipment rental company in the world. His strategy at XPO was defined by a willingness to take on massive debt to fund acquisitions, a relentless focus on operational integration, and a belief that technology could solve the inefficiencies of the fragmented trucking industry. In 2021 and 2022, Jacobs executed the spin-offs of GXO Logistics and RXO, stripping away the low-margin businesses to transform XPO into a focused, high-margin, pure-play LTL carrier. In late 2025, Jacobs transitioned from Executive Chairman to Special Advisor, handing full operational control to his longtime protege, Mario Harik, marking the end of an era and the beginning of XPO’s focus on organic execution and technological optimization.

XPO, Inc.: CEO & Leadership History

Full timeline →

Mario Harik

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

2022–Present

Mario Harik has led the execution of XPO's strategy since becoming CEO in late 2022, successfully pivoting the company's focus from inorganic growth to organic network optimization and the deployment of the proprietary XPO X1 technology platform. Under his leadership, XPO has maintained industry-leading operating margins above 10.5% and aggressively deployed free cash flow into terminal automation and share repurchases.

Dave Bates

Chief Operating Officer

2021–Present

Dave Bates oversees the day-to-day operations of XPO's North American and European terminal networks, managing a workforce of over 40,000 employees. He has been instrumental in the integration of the Kuehne+Nagel European assets and the deployment of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) across the company's terminal footprint.

Wendy Cassity

Chief Legal Officer

2019–Present

Wendy Cassity manages XPO's global legal, compliance, and risk management functions, navigating the complex regulatory landscape of the transportation industry. She has led the company's legal strategy regarding union negotiations, environmental compliance, and the structural complexities of the GXO and RXO spin-offs.

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