Brad Jacobs is a career CEO and the founder of Jacobs Private Equity (his family office). Brad created and grew three platforms using a roll-up strategy that resulted in seven multibillion-dollar publicly traded companies. He and his teams have raised $30 billion of capital, completed 500 acquisitions, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and generated annual returns to shareholders in excess of 50%. Brad shares his playbook in his aptly named book, How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. In December, he announced a billion-dollar PIPE into a new platform opportunity, of which $900 million is his personal capital.

Our conversation is a master class in all aspects of leadership and management, including identifying an opportunity, acquiring businesses, assessing people, managing talent, running operations, leading electric meetings, motivating and compensating team members, and embarking on his next platform investment.