Patrick KelleherCEO, GXO Logistics

I have a 32 year career in contract logistics, and I watched GXO since 2021 with admiration and a little envy. When Brad called, it was an easy decision. GXO is a pure play leader with agility, speed in decisions, and strong customer focus. The tech leadership and growth platform really stood out to me.

I majored in supply chain and started in 1992 at XL Logistics, which DHL acquired in 2005. I stayed in contract logistics my whole career. I held many roles that shaped how I compete and serve customers. From 2017 to 2023, I ran global sales, marketing, product development, verticals, and M&A as chief development officer.

Contract logistics is still a massive industry, around a 500 billion total addressable market, and it is fragmented globally. It keeps growing. GXO going public as a pure play helped define the market and created awareness of the industry potential. That is part of why the runway is attractive for a focused operator.

The speed and agility stand out, especially as a pure play public company. I like how fast we can make capital allocation and technology decisions. The performance mindset is real, and the customer focus is strong. It is exciting waking up every day working on technology, automation, and now AI and even humanoids in facilities.

Two thirds of our business is in the UK and Europe because M&A was very successful there. GXO doubled in size since the 2021 spin off, mostly from M&A in those theaters. But we have underdelivered on growth in North America versus the market and peers. With our capabilities, North America should be a key organic growth driver.

We brought in Michael Jacobs to lead North America and Asia Pacific. He is a 30 year industry veteran and comes from the customer side, so he understands what customers want. We are reallocating resources to sales and marketing, building a stronger digital marketing engine, and adding sales talent, especially in aerospace and defense.

About 70% of our GXO business is consumer facing, like e-commerce, omni channel, CPG, and retail. We want diversification by growing B2B verticals: aerospace, defense, life sciences, technology, and industrial. We have strong competencies from M&A and talented teams. These verticals bring more complex solutions and better profitability when executed well.

Tariffs are a catalyst for supply chain efficiency. When customers see disruption or headwinds, they become willing to make changes to capture efficiency. That creates supply chain change that can become permanent. It is good for the industry and great for GXO, because we are positioned to respond with proven tools, processes, and people.

We operate about 70 foreign trade zones globally, and the solution is becoming dramatically more interesting. The price point where it makes sense has moved down. Now even products with around 20 to 30 dollars individual value can have ROI, mainly by deferring tariff and duty payments for cash flow benefits. Customers are leaning into that fast.

This is a new era of growth at GXO with organic growth as the top priority. We grew high teens to 20% in 2021, and this year is mid single digit. We believe we can do more. We participate in a market that keeps growing and we only hold about 3% share today, so the runway is clear.

We are strengthening digital marketing to connect with customers and also create interest in outsourcing. We are adding salespeople, especially in B2B verticals, and we are focusing on high growth markets like North America. The organization spent years digesting M&A. Now it is time to use that scale and capability to accelerate organic growth.

North America and B2B verticals are a major focus into 2026. In 2027, we can go deeper in Asia where we are well positioned in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, with a toe in Australia. Customers are also interested in pulling us into the Middle East. That adds more total addressable market as we expand.

Organic growth is the first priority and margin expansion is a close second. Margin expansion is not dependent on volume returning. Two key levers are growing North America, which is healthy from a profitability perspective, and expanding B2B verticals with more complex solutions that have higher risk and higher reward. Mix and execution both matter.

We are adding a global chief operating officer to put a global lens on the business. After years of M&A, we ran more as regional silos. We see labor productivity opportunities by deploying the best tools consistently across 1200 plus operations, in what I call the GXO way. We also focus on technology ROI and procurement leverage.

When automation is employed, contracts are longer, typically 10 years or more, versus an average 5 year contract. Margins are higher in operations where automation and the technology ecosystem are deployed well. It creates stickiness because customers see proven ROI. Our job is to accelerate deployment and share value with customers while improving execution.

GXO IQ is the platform that helps us roll out AI faster into operations. You can think of it like a place where facility teams can shop for AI tools that deliver value. It interfaces with warehouse management systems and is agnostic to the WMS. It is integrated with our data lake, so we can measure ROI, improve modules, or stop tools that do not deliver.

The performance culture is real, and people talk like teammates and even athletes. The biggest underlying behavior is a feedback culture. I saw it in my interview with Brad and I see it in meetings now. People give compliments and constructive criticism openly. That is how teams stay high performing, move fast, and align around priorities like growth, margins, and service.