Neighborly CEO Mike Bidwell died unexpectedly, the company announced September 8.
Mike Bidwell, the CEO of Neighborly, has died at the age of 65.
“We will all miss Mike more than words can express, and we are fortunate to have worked for such an amazing leader who was smart, compassionate and insightful,” the company’s leadership team said in a joint statement. “He put a strong team together—and in times like this, we stand together to honor him by carrying his vision for Neighborly forward.”
Bidwell started in the Neighborly family of brands in 1984 as a franchisee of Rainbow International Carpet Cleaning in Tuscon, Arizona. He became the company’s first multi-brand franchisee a few years later in 1987, when he opened what is now known as DreamMaker Bath and Kitchen. In 1992 he added a Mr. Rooter Plumbing franchise.
By 1995, Neighborly recruited him to its headquarters in Waco, Texas. In 2014, he was named president and CEO of the umbrella home services company. The company announced his unexpected passing September 8.
Neighborly, previously called Dwyer Group, owns more than 30 brands, including Junk King, Molly Maid and Rainbow Restoration.
Chief Financial Officer Jon Shell has taken the role of interim CEO and president of Neighborly. He’s served in his previous role since August 2015. Before that, he worked in the same position at Smokey Bones, a barbecue restaurant. Shell was not available for comment.
David Brandon is now Neighborly’s board executive chairman; he was previously a board member and the former CEO of Domino’s.
Bidwell led the brand through its rebrand from Dwyer Group to Neighborly in 2017 and has significantly grown the company since he took over in 2014, increasing the portfolio from about seven brands to more than 30.
“If you back up, about eight years ago we had seven brands. Since then, we’ve done over 20 acquisitions,” Bidwell told Franchise Times in 2022. The idea was to create “this Neighborly hub for home services. What we had then, six brands would not be a marketplace. As we thought about fulfillment of the customer, we knew we needed a whole lot more verticals. Today we’ve got that.”
The name change was inspired by a recognition of the lack of customers who had used more than one of Neighborly’s brands: just 2 percent.
“It was shockingly low,” Bidwell told Franchise Times in 2017. “We knew we were doing a poor job of cross-selling, but we thought it would be higher.”
Bidwell also led the company through several private equity transactions over the years, most recently to KKR & Co., which bought Neighborly in 2021 from Harvest Partners.
In a press release, the company said it will continue to strive to meet Neighborly and Bidwell’s vision, “to be so remarkable we become a beloved household name.”