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Founder / Operator·Building Products

Brad Jacobs

Chairman and CEO at QXO Inc.

Greenwich, Connecticut, USA

BJ
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Why they matter

Serial billionaire consolidator with a six-time public-company track record who is now actively rolling up building products distribution via QXO.

Background

Brad Jacobs is a serial industrial roll-up entrepreneur who has founded eight billion-dollar-plus companies, six of them publicly traded, including United Waste Systems, United Rentals, XPO, GXO Logistics, RXO, and QXO. Across these ventures his teams have completed roughly 500 M&A transactions and raised more than $60 billion in institutional capital. He now serves as Founder, Chairman, and CEO of QXO, Inc., which he is building into a tech-enabled consolidator of the $800 billion building products distribution industry.

Notable deals

  • 2025
    QXO completed its $11 billion all-cash acquisition of Beacon Roofing Supply, becoming the largest publicly traded distributor of roofing, waterproofing, and building products in the U.S.
  • 2011
    Took control of Express-1 Expedited Solutions via Jacobs Private Equity and renamed it XPO Logistics, then spent over $7 billion on 17 acquisitions in four years to build it into a freight-transportation giant
  • 1997
    Founded United Rentals in September 1997 and took it public that December, growing it within about a year into the world's largest construction/industrial equipment rental company
  • 1997
    Sold United Waste Systems, the rural trash-hauling roll-up he founded in 1989, to USA Waste Services (now Waste Management) in a stock-and-debt deal valued around $1.9 billion

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Founder/Chairman/CEO of QXO, Inc.; prior founder of United Waste Systems, United Rentals, XPO, GXO Logistics, and RXO — six public companies, ~500 M&A deals, $60B+ capital raised.
  • Based in Greenwich, CT; billionaire investor (~$13-14B net worth per Bloomberg/Forbes).

Current focus

  • Building QXO into the leading tech-enabled player in the $800B building products distribution market.
  • Closed the $11B acquisition of Beacon Roofing Supply (April 2025) — QXO's first major building-products deal, achieved after a months-long, initially hostile pursuit.
  • Publicly stated goal: grow QXO to $50B in revenue via both large acquisitions ($30-40B of inorganic revenue) and organic/operational improvement (tech, pricing, procurement).

What he cares about

  • Speed and discipline in M&A integration; technology-enabled operating improvements (pricing analytics, digital tools) layered onto acquired distributors.
  • Capital markets access — has repeatedly tapped equity and debt markets (e.g., $830M private placement alongside Beacon deal) to fund roll-ups.

Recent moves

  • QXO rang the NYSE opening bell April 30, 2025 to mark the Beacon close and immediate rebrand.
  • Continues to pursue additional building-products bolt-on and platform acquisitions post-Beacon.

Potential sensitivities

  • The Beacon pursuit was contentious/hostile at points — be mindful discussing deal tactics or Beacon's prior management relationship.
  • Jacobs moves fast and expects counterparties to match pace; overly cautious or slow process design may turn him off.

Questions to ask

  1. What's the pipeline of bolt-on vs. platform deals QXO is evaluating next in building products distribution?
  2. How is QXO's tech/pricing playbook being integrated into Beacon, and what's the timeline to margin improvement?
  3. What check size and deal structure (cash, stock, leverage) is QXO comfortable with for the next $30-40B of targeted acquisitions?

Outreach draft

Subject
Building products roll-up ideas for QXO
Brad, Congratulations on closing the Beacon acquisition and getting QXO to scale so quickly in building products distribution. Your track record of turning industrial roll-ups into public-market leaders is exactly the kind of playbook our team studies closely. We're active in the building products and distribution space and are seeing a number of interesting bolt-on and platform opportunities that could fit QXO's path to $50B in revenue. Would welcome a short call to compare notes on where you see the best consolidation targets right now, and where we might be useful as a source of deal flow or co-investment. Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

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