XPO Names Mario Harik to Succeed Brad Jacobs as CEO
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XPO Logistics Inc. announced Mario Harik will succeed Brad Jacobs as CEO of XPO and join the board of directors following XPO’s planned spinoff of its tech-enabled brokerage platform.
The spinoff is set for the fourth quarter.
Jacobs will remain with XPO as executive chairman, and will become nonexecutive chairman after the spinoff.
XPO also announced it named Harik president of less-than-truckload, effective immediately. He has served as acting LTL president since October 2021.
The company plans to become a pure-play LTL transportation provider in North America after completing the brokerage spinoff and the divestiture of its European business.
XPO Logistics ranks No. 3 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 6 on the Transport Topics Top 100 logistics companies.
“The opportunity ahead for XPO is enormous,” Harik said in a release. “We have a high return-on-invested-capital LTL business in an industry with substantial barriers to entry, durable end-market demand, secular tailwinds and strong pricing dynamics. I’m excited to continue working with Brad and the team to create a world-class LTL carrier.”
In his first nine months as head of North American LTL, Harik improved the company’s operating efficiency to a record level in the second quarter of 2022, according to XPO.
Over the same period, he enhanced pricing, excluding fuel impact, from a year-over-year gain to 10.6% from 6%, rebalanced the network and spearheaded high-impact technology deployments. In addition, Harik accelerated growth by doubling production run-rate at the company’s in-house trailer manufacturing facility and opening five new terminals, adding 345 net new doors toward a goal of 900 net new doors by year-end 2023.
Jacobs said Aug. 4 during the company’s Q2 earnings call that Harik led his team to record revenue for the quarter, as well as an operating ratio of 82.5 and an adjusted operating ratio of 80.4.
“It was our best quarterly adjusted operating ratio to date, excluding real estate, with a year-over-year improvement of 70 basis points, on track for more than 100 basis points of improvement this year. Yield, excluding fuel, accelerated year-over-year by 11%. We maintained the highest level of network fluidity since 2020, and won a record amount of new business in the quarter. We also doubled our trailer manufacturing output year-over-year,” Jacobs said.
For Q2, XPO reported net income from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders was $141 million, compared with $113 million for the same period in 2021. Revenue increased to $3.23 billion compared with $3.19 billion for the same period in 2021.
“Mario has been key to XPO’s success since our earliest days, working side-by-side with me to build the company into an industry leader and innovation powerhouse,” Jacobs said in a release. “He has a deep understanding of our business, and he’s the architect of our industry-best technology platform. I’m confident that we’ll have a seamless transition from Mario’s current role as LTL president to his leadership of XPO as a stand-alone LTL company.”
As of June 30, XPO’s North American LTL business had an integrated network of 294 terminals, equipment assets of about 8,200 tractors and 27,000 trailers, and 25,000 accounts in diverse verticals served by about 22,000 employees, including 13,000 professional drivers.
For the full year 2021, XPO’s North American LTL business generated $4.1 billion of revenue and $618 million of operating income. For the full year 2022, the company expects to nearly triple adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization generated by LTL from the time it acquired the North American business in 2015.
Prior to being named president of the LTL operation, Harik during a stretch that extends to 2011 held positions of chief information officer and chief customer officer.
Prior to XPO, Harik was chief information officer with Oakleaf Waste Management, chief technology officer with Tallan Inc., and co-founder and chief architect of web and voice applications with G3 Analyst.
He holds a master’s degree in engineering — information technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s in engineering, computer and communications from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
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