XPO names CEO of planned brokerage spinoff

Dive Brief:

XPO on Monday named Drew Wilkerson as the planned CEO of the company's planned brokerage spinoff.
As the current president of North American Transportation, Wilkerson brings 14 years of leadership experience to the new role, according to a press release. Prior to joining XPO in 2012, Wilkerson served in various leadership positions at C.H. Robinson Worldwide.
Wilkerson will transition to the new role once XPO completes its spinoff, which is expected to occur sometime in Q4 2022, according to the press release.

Dive Insight:

While XPO may be trying to transform into a pure-play LTL, the company is not planning to leave its spinoffs hanging.

"With the new spin-off, we believe that our best-in-class truck brokerage business will finally get the investor recognition it deserves," XPO wrote in its 2021 10-K, calling the segment a "gem of a business."

XPO's 10-K this past February made it clear that keeping much of the same talent in place will be key to the spinoff's success.

"The spin-off will continue to be run by the same brokerage leaders, the same pricing experts and the same data scientists who have worked together for many years at XPO. They bring a lot of expertise to the business, and our long-standing outperformance in truck brokerage is, to a large degree, their achievement," the company wrote.

Drew Wilkerson — Courtesy of XPO Logistics

XPO has applauded Wilkerson's work as far back as 2013. At the time, Wilkerson was one of four executivies identified as having the potential to turn local branches in Charlotte, Chicago and Gainesville, Georgia, into "mega-branches" for brokerage, according to an investor presentation.

Wilkerson would go on to hold four distinct positions at XPO, rising from a brokerage hub president in 2012 to president of the company's asset-light truck brokerage division in 2020.

“Drew is an exceptional transportation executive who’s passionate about creating value through our technology-based brokerage model," XPO CEO Brad Jacobs said in a statement. "He’s a major reason why our truck brokerage revenue growth rate was three times the industry CAGR from 2013 to 2021."