The Front Office

Scouting report · QXO

Ihsan Essaid

  • Chief Financial Officer, QXO since 2024-07src

Former Barclays global head of M&A; QXO CFO since July 2024

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance—no promises on the record yet
Answers the question—no call reviewed yet
Capital allocation—company not reviewed yet
Pay design67ebitda, revenue, relative tsr, time only · 97.6% for · company lost money
Skin in the game—no holding or price on file
Age
59src
In the role
2 yr
Promises scored
0
Hit rate
—
Dodges / 100 answers
—
Airtime on calls
—
Every promise, oldest firstno scored promises yet

What to weigh

Watch 4

  • First CFO role. His filed career is M&A advisory, not operating finance or public-company reporting, and he runs finance at a serial acquirersrc
  • Accounting-chief turnover under him: CAO Sean Smith resigned 2026-03-15, interim CAO Robert Loughran was replaced on 2026-07-01 by another interim, Madeline Otero from TopBuild. A permanent CAO search was under way in Marchsrc
  • Front-loaded equity: 847,500 RSUs (235,000 of them a Barclays make-whole) and 1,137,500 PSUs at target, grant-date value $32.8m, meant to cover five years. The first PSU tranche vested at 225% of target, measured from $4.57src
  • FY2025 incentive targets missed (Adjusted EBITDA below threshold, revenue 95.4% of target) and the bonus was cut to zero at management's recommendation. GAAP net loss $279.4msrc

In their favour 1

  • After-tax shares from his awards cannot be sold before 2029-12-31 without committee approval, and he made no open-market sales in the last yearsrc

Career

  1. 2024 – now
    QXO, Inc.src
    Chief Financial Officer
    Since 2024-07-15
  2. 2021 – 2024
    Barclayssrc
    Global Head of M&A; earlier co-head of global M&A and co-head of Americas M&A
    September 2021 to July 2024 per the 2026 proxy; the dates of each Barclays title are not given
  3. 2015 – 2021
    Credit Suissesrc
    Managing Director, media and telecom M&A
  4. 2008 – 2015
    Perella Weinberg Partnerssrc
    Partner

Not located: Before 2008 not located: the filings speak of more than three decades in investment banking but name no earlier employer

Achievements

  • Ran M&A at Barclays as global head from a co-head role, after six years as a Credit Suisse media and telecom M&A managing director and seven as a Perella Weinberg partnersrc
  • The company's release said he advised on more than $50bn of transactions at Barclays after joining in 2021src
  • CFO through the Beacon acquisition (closed 2025-04-29) and more than $4bn raised in public offerings and private placements in 2025, per the proxysrc
  • Holds 348,882 shares, 21x his salary against a 3x guidelinesrc

Education

  • Columbia Business School, MBA Finance (concentration)src
  • Hobart College, Bachelor's Mathematics and French (dual major)src

Background

  • Family The appointment 8-K states no family relationships with any QXO director or executive officersrc
  • Other One of the few executives who did not invest in the June 2024 Equity Investment (the proxy lists Essaid, Liborski and Kushner as the exceptions)src
  • Other Employment agreement: $900k salary, 125% target bonus, both stepping up with the revenue run rate; $3m signing bonus for incentives forfeited at Barclays, repayable if he leaves within two yearssrc

The promise ledger

No promise on the record yet: the research routine has not scored this company's guidance.

Sources

10
  1. Filing QXO, Inc. DEF 14A for the 2026 annual meeting (accession 0001104659-26-033501) · 2026-03-24
  2. Filing QXO, Inc. 10-K for FY2025, Information about our Executive Officers (0001628280-26-012601) · 2026-02-27
  3. Filing QXO, Inc. 8-K Item 5.02, Ihsan Essaid appointed CFO, with bio and employment agreement (0000950142-24-001951) · 2024-07-18
  4. Filing QXO, Inc. 8-K Item 5.02, CAO Sean Smith resigns, Robert Loughran interim CAO (0000950142-26-000736) · 2026-03-17
  5. Filing QXO, Inc. 8-K Items 2.01/5.02, TopBuild closing; Madeline Otero interim CAO (0001104659-26-079864) · 2026-07-01
  6. Filing QXO, Inc. 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0001628280-26-032869) · 2026-05-08
  7. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 1236275 (FY2025 10-K, 0001628280-26-012601) · 2026-02-27
  8. Filing Form 4, Ihsan Essaid (reporting CIK 2030584), PSU vesting of 2026-01-15 with tax withholding (0000950142-26-000188) · 2026-01-20
  9. Filing Form 4, Ihsan Essaid, RSU vesting of 2025-12-31 with tax withholding (0000950142-26-000027) · 2026-01-05
  10. Web search result WebSearch: Ihsan Essaid Appointed Chief Financial Officer of QXO (company press release, GlobeNewswire, 2024-05-28) · 2026-09-24