Executive recruiting firm Milestone Partners announced Friday that it underwent a change of ownership as industry veteran Brad Mackler acquired the company, as of Jan. 1, from founder Sam Herman.
Mackler has held leadership positions at Ryder, FedEx, Landstar and Schneider National, as well as a number of technology-focused logistics startups, including his most recent role as a business development consultant at Convoy.
Mackler and Herman have known each other since before the founding of Milestone in 2004, and Mackler said he is grateful to Herman for the opportunity to build off his success in acquiring talent for high-level executive positions at companies like U.S. Xpress, ThermoKing, Landstar and J.B. Hunt.
As the Great Resignation continues, with an average of 3.9 million workers quitting their jobs each month since December 2020 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mackler is preparing to stay busy.
“There are a lot of people taking a hard look at what they are doing and realizing if they are not happy, this is a great time to make a move and there are a lot of opportunities out there,” he said.
But some job searches are necessitated because of company turnovers.
“Private equity activity [in logistics] is at an all time high and when private equity comes into a situation they are likely going to change some, if not all, of the management team,” said Mackler. “Once private equity comes in, they have expectations to become profitable and a lot of leaders don’t have a path to do that. … Private equity wants people leading that believe they can get that job done.”
To help Milestone Partners get the job done, Mackler has hired Marian Brewer as the executive vice president of operations and talent acquisition.
Brewer brings decades of experience from her previous roles as senior director of human resources at Allied Automotive Group, vice president of human resources at U.S. Xpress and vice president of Longistics Transportation.
“When you are looking to take a C-level position, you need to have a broad view of the industry, understand the economy and have a 40,000-foot view of what is happening at that company,” Brewer told FreightWaves. “We are often not looking for somebody who was just in operations because they might not necessarily have the financial background or risk management skills to break down what needs to be fixed at a particular company they are coming into.”
Working alongside Mackler, she expects their combined experience will help both job seekers and companies looking for executives.
“He has strengths in the sales side and I have experience in the placement side and we have mutual respect for each other’s skills,” said Brewer. “I like the relationship we have as a team and I think we are going to be hugely successful because of it.”
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