QXO Inc. named its next president and chief operating officer (COO), giving a Sept. 1 start date to the newest member of its executive suite.

Ken West, who most recently led Honeywell Process Technology in the CEO role, will join the distributor in an era when QXO acquisitions have increasingly driven sales growth.

West will report directly to QXO CEO Brad Jacobs in his new role.

Who is QXO’s new president and COO?

“Ken [West] is an exceptional operator with the executional rigor to lead QXO’s operations,” Jacobs stated. “He has demonstrated an ability to achieve outstanding results across a number of industrial businesses.”

West arrives with more than two decades of experience, which included his time at Honeywell Process Technology, as well as PPG Industries. In total, he spent nearly eight years at Honeywell, where he also held leadership positions at Honeywell UOP and Honeywell Advanced Materials.

At PPG, he held a vice president role overseeing PPG’s Global Packaging Coatings business. In addition, he served there as director of specialty products for PPG’s Architectural Coatings business.

“His leadership will be instrumental as we look to scale our platform and deliver outsized shareholder value,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs has stated that acquisitions are likely to play an ongoing role in QXO’s organic growth as it pushes ahead toward a target of $50 billion in annual revenue during the current decade. Already, the CEO said QXO has been able to position itself as the second-largest publicly traded building products distributor in North America.

What West’s position will entail at QXO

“I’m excited to join QXO at this pivotal moment in its growth,” West said. “We have an extraordinary opportunity to build the preeminent company in the building products industry, and I’m eager to help transform the QXO team’s bold vision into reality.”

QXO’s announcement cited his “high-impact operational leadership and driving major business transformations,” in addition to crediting him for Honeywell Technologies’ acquisition of Johnson Matthey’s Catalyst Technologies. That deal was completed in July.

At the time, West said the acquisition “significantly enhances Honeywell Technologies’ ability to deliver end-to-end solutions” for its customers.

That experience, along with his time integrating Catalyst’s business and operations at Honeywell, underscores recent accomplishments that may carry relevance as QXO integrates its own acquisition targets.

In QXO’s most recent fiscal Q2, its Kodiak Building Partners acquisition contributed $595 million to that quarter’s total sales. The quarter’s results also benefited from the distributor’s $11 billion Beacon Roofing Supply acquisition from April 2025. When QXO first detailed its interest in that acquisition, the company indicated it could be the first of many acquisitions to come.

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