136. Creating value with M&A: A conversation with XPO CEO Brad Jacobs

Few business leaders have more experience in M&A than Brad Jacobs. Over a four-decade-plus career, he created several billion-dollar corporations. The most recent three he built largely through acquisitions: United Rentals, an industrial equipment rental company; United Waste Systems, involved in garbage collection; and XPO, the logistics company he currently leads. At both United Rentals and United Waste, he executed more than 200 deals each. At XPO, he has created a digital-forward logistics leader in an industry that has tended to lag in technology adoption.

Brad will soon transition from CEO to executive chairman of XPO. We thought it’d be a good time to ask him to share the lessons he has learned over the course of his extensive deal-making experience. Brad sat down with Andy West, a senior partner based in Boston who co-leads McKinsey’s M&A practice globally.


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