1124 Rick Arquilla, president, Roto-Rooter, "Undercover Boss" 2010

Published: July 26, 2019, 1:50 a.m.

2010: When the producers of the CBS reality TV hit “Undercover Boss” brag that their show is about corporate presidents getting their hands dirty, they couldn’t be more accurate than this week’s episode. Because on Sunday, April 4, 2010, the boss going undercover is Rick Arquilla, president of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Roto-Rooter Services Company. That’s right, the top guy at America’s largest plumbing and drain cleaning service will be shown as one of the guys, one of the grunts, repairing and snaking America’s pipes. I know I want to watch that episode—don’t you? RICK ARQUILLA podcast excerpt: "I can assure you that there were certain jobs that no one in their wildest dreams would hire me to do at Roto-Rooters. I was incompetent on numerous levels!"  Arquilla, whose background is in sales, not plumbing, joined Roto-Rooter in 1989 and rose from regional vice president to president and chief operating officer just three years later. Roto-Rooter  •  •