David McKinnon, CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder of Service Brands International (SBI), began his franchising career in 1982 when he and a partner purchased a ServiceMaster franchise in Toronto, Canada. Together they built the largest commercial carpet cleaning franchise in Canada.
Then, McKinnon was introduced to the founder of Molly Maid, and later acquired the business and all the rights to develop the Molly Maid residential cleaning franchise for the United States. McKinnon relocated and established the corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Today Molly Maid has grown to more than 740 franchises worldwide and over 400 in the United States.
McKinnon’s ability to “brand” a service is highly recognized in the franchise world, and now has made Molly Maid’s pink and navy logo synonymous with professional household cleaning nationwide.
While not without challenges, McKinnon ultimately was successful in building Molly Maid. He recognized that other segments of the home service business were highly fragmented, and that society was becoming increasingly time starved. He began exploring other home services that would provide help with that “honey do” list for seniors, people living alone, and busy families, and with that, in 2001 Service Brands International was born.
In 2002 McKinnon was recognized by the IFA as Entrepreneur of the Year.