XPO Logistics Inc. on Thursday named Mario Harik, currently CIO and interim head of the company’s less-than-truckload business, as permanent CEO of what will become a pure-play LTL carrier by the end of 2022.
Brad Jacobs, XPO’s founder, chairman and CEO, will step aside as CEO and become XPO’s (NYSE: XPO) executive chairman once the company spins off its truck brokerage, final-mile and managed transportation businesses. The spinoff is expected to occur during the fourth quarter. Jacobs will also become non-executive chairman of the spinoff, known as RXO.
Jacobs becomes the third founder of a major transport and logistics company to step down as CEO and become executive chairman. The other two are Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Frederick W. Smith, founder of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX).
Harik, 41, joined XPO as CIO at the company’s founding in 2011. He added the interim LTL CEO position last October upon the retirement of Tony Brooks. He was also named the company’s chief customer officer last year. Decisions on the CIO and chief customer officer positions will be made later this year.
XPO had been conducting a monthslong search for a permanent LTL head. In the end, however, it chose to stick with Harik.
The FREIGHTWAVES TOP 500 For-Hire Carriers list includes XPO Logistics (No. 8).