About us

Established in 2008, Brightway is one of the largest privately owned property/casualty insurance distribution companies in the U.S. with over 300 franchises in over 30 states.

Our history

  • 2008

    Miller brothers establish Brightway Insurance in Jacksonville, Florida

  • 2011

    100,000th policy is sold

  • 2012

    100th franchise location opens

  • 2013

    Brightway named the #1 insurance franchise by Entrepreneur magazine

  • 2015

    Brightway named the #1 Franchise to Buy in America by Forbes Magazine

  • 2018

    Annualized written premium reaches $500 million

  • 2019

    Brightway named the #1 Franchise in Entrepreneur magazine for the 2nd time

  • 2020

    200th franchise location opens

  • 2021

    Annualized written premium reaches $800 million

  • 2022

    Annualized premium reaches over $900 million, Brightway named #1 insurance franchise by Franchise Times

2008

Miller brothers establish Brightway Insurance in Jacksonville, Florida

2011

100,000th policy is sold

2012

100th franchise location opens

2013

Brightway named the #1 insurance franchise by Entrepreneur magazine

2015

Brightway named the #1 Franchise to Buy in America by Forbes Magazine

2018

Annualized written premium reaches $500 million

2019

Brightway named the #1 Franchise in Entrepreneur magazine for the 2nd time

2020

200th franchise location opens

2021

Annualized written premium reaches $800 million

2022

Annualized premium reaches over $900 million, Brightway named #1 insurance franchise by Franchise Times

Meet the Leadership team

Mark Cantin Learn More

Mark Cantin

President & CEO
Rick Fox Learn More

Rick Fox

Chief Revenue Officer
Michael Garamoni Learn More

Michael Garamoni

Chief Financial Officer
Eliah Kahn Learn More

Eliah Kahn

Head of Customer Experience
Shane Blazek Learn More

Shane Blazek

Chief Technology Officer
Clayton Vigrass Learn More

Clayton Vigrass

Chief Operations Officer
Kris Azar Learn More

Kris Azar

VP, FirstCity Insurers
Brendan Gaine Learn More

Brendan Gaine

Head of Sales
David Mozdziak Learn More

David Mozdziak

Head of Marketing and Communications
Irina Shevelenko Learn More

Irina Shevelenko

Head of Business Transformation
Jess Spendley Learn More

Jess Spendley

VP, Accounting Operations
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Mark Cantin

Mark Cantin

President & CEO

Mark is the President and CEO of Brightway. Mark leads Brightway with a vision of becoming a tech-enabled, turnkey provider for the insurance franchisee of the future, while offering choice, flexibility and a seamless experience for customers.

 

Mark is an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in the insurance field, including both insurance distribution and underwriting. Throughout his career, he has led business strategy definition and execution, P&L oversight and turnaround, distribution and sales management, transformational change and technology innovation.

 

He previously served as lead operating executive – Insurance Distribution at GrowthCurve Capital. Prior to that, Mark was president of field operations and a member of the executive committee at QBE North America, a division of QBE Insurance Group, one of the 20 largest global insurance and reinsurance companies. Before that, Mark was the chief marketing officer at USI Insurance, one of top 10 domestic brokers. He also held various roles with increasing leadership responsibility at Liberty Mutual over a 20-year career with the company.

 

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Connecticut. 

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Rick Fox

Rick Fox

Chief Revenue Officer

Rick Fox is the Chief Revenue Officer of Brightway. Backed by his deep understanding of the insurance agency experience, having built his own successful independent insurance agency at the start of his career, Rick is responsible for supporting and streamlining customer and agency growth and the expansion of operations through new product offerings and revenue streams.

 

Prior to joining Brightway, Rick held the role of Head of Agency Sales at Vertafore, a leading insurance software solution service, and previously served as the President of Agency Revolution, an agency automation and marketing consultancy.  

 

At Brightway, Rick drives value creation and growth opportunities for our agents and insurance carrier partners.

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Michael Garamoni

Michael Garamoni

Chief Financial Officer

As CFO, Michael supports Brightway and its agencies by leading the teams responsible for guiding and supporting capital allocation decisions, financial reporting and analysis, and day-to-day fiscal operations. He is focused on the use of data to maximize agency performance and identify strategic investment opportunities to enhance Brightway’s success.

 

Michael brings deep experience in transforming and leading high performing finance teams and leading rapid growth companies.  Prior to Brightway, Michael was CFO of Orchid Underwriters, a managing general underwriter that doubled premium in just 18 months.  Prior to Orchid, Michael spent 10 years at Ryan Specialty Group (NYSE: RYAN), joining at inception and serving in a variety of financial and accounting roles - most recently VP of Global Finance - while the brokerage grew to a $12 billion in premium.  Michael began his career in the insurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers.  

 

Michael holds a Masters of Accountancy, a B.S. in Accountancy, and an B.A. in Public Administration, all from Miami University.  Michael is a CFA, CPA (Inactive), and former licensed surplus lines producer.

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Eliah Kahn

Eliah Kahn

Head of Customer Experience

As Brightway’s Head of Customer Experience, Eliah is responsible for developing and maintaining our service delivery framework to ensure agents and customers receive an unparalleled experience regardless of how they wish to connect.

Eliah brings 35 years of experience building and leading large, complex sales and service operations for insurance, hospitality and recognized consumer brands. During his career, he concepted, developed and operationally delivered Allstate’s first contact centers back in 2000, onboarding 1500 licensed employees and accelerating integration across service and new online channels.

Eliah also built leading contact centers for GE, Cigna Direct Marketing, Mercer Defined Benefits, Orbitz, Allianz and ran Prudential’s P&C Personal Lines service operations before that divestiture. Most recently, as a Managing Director and transformation thought leader at Accenture, Eliah led the P&C service delivery practice while helping to modernize a leading global carrier with a distribution network encompassing thousands of agency partners.

Eliah resides in Philadelphia and holds a BS in Marketing from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Louisville.

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Shane Blazek

Shane Blazek

Chief Technology Officer

As the Chief Technology Officer of Brightway, Shane leads the Engineering, Data, Information Technology and Systems Administration teams supporting agency owner business growth and the customer engagement experience.

 

Shane is an InsureTech leader seasoned in driving innovation to build agent and policyholder support technologies. He previously served as Head of Technology for Vouch Specialty where he was responsible for all operational technology and development of the broker-facing sales support platform. As the VP and Head of Engineering at Mylo, he implemented a technology strategic vision and roadmap that led to the company being named “InsureTech Firm of the Year” by Finance Monthly and “Best InsureTech Company” in the FinTech Breakthrough Awards.

 

Shane is focused on partnering with key stakeholders to fulfill Brightway’s vision of being a tech-enabled, turnkey provider for the insurance franchisee of the future. 

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Clayton Vigrass

Clayton Vigrass

Chief Operations Officer

Clayton brings over 22 years of experience in the field to Brightway. He previously spent 11 years at USI Insurance as senior VP of retail and 11 years with Willis Towers Watson in various roles. He is a Certified Public Accountant as well as an Associate in Personal Risk. Always working to develop his professional skills, he has completed the Institutes Associate in Risk Management and Associate in General insurance designations as well as the Fellow Life Management Institute designation.

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Kris Azar

Kris Azar

VP, FirstCity Insurers

Kris brings more than 30 years’ experience with property/casualty insurance companies in virtually every area of carrier operations, including product development, underwriting, pricing, marketing, distribution, and management.

She joined Brightway in 2015 as VP of Customer Experience. In 2020, she joined FirstCity Insurers,  Brightway’s Managing General Agency.

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Brendan Gaine

Brendan Gaine

Head of Sales

Brendan brings to Brightway over 28 years of field experience in sales management and leadership, distribution, and sales production.  His demonstrated expertise in building, growing and leading insurance sales teams/organizations has propelled him to the executive ranks in some of the most respected carriers and brokers in the industry.

Most recently, Brendan was a North America Executive Relationship Manager, Major Trading Partners for QBE Insurance Group, A top-20 largest global insurance and reinsurance company.  Prior to QBE, Brendan served as Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer at J.W. Terrill, an insurance brokerage acquired by Marsh McLennan.  He began his career at Liberty Mutual Insurance, working his way up from Commercial Claims Case Manager to Regional Vice President, Middle Market where he guided a team of over 60 sales professionals to a national leadership position in new business premium and exceeded all new business, retention and profitability targets.

Brendan earned his BA from West Virginia University.

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David Mozdziak

David Mozdziak

Head of Marketing and Communications

David is the Head of Marketing and Communications for Brightway Insurance. In this role he is responsible for franchisee marketing, agency marketing, Brightway’s public relations and brand experience externally, and customer and internal communications.


He has held senior marketing, communication and strategy roles at top national and global insurers. As VP of Marketing for QBE North America, he was responsible for development of the company’s marketing strategy and assets, oversight of corporate events and sponsorships, and leading the philanthropic foundation. David also dedicated over 13 years to The Hartford, managing product strategy, marketing and communication initiatives for the company’s P&C and Group Benefits businesses, as well as overseeing the creative services team.


Early in his career, David held advertising agency and digital consultancy roles of increasing responsibility serving some of the most demanding Fortune 100 clients.

David earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communication, with a dual concentration in Marketing and Public Relations, from Central Connecticut State University.

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Irina Shevelenko

Irina Shevelenko

Head of Business Transformation

As Brightway's Head of Business Transformation, Irina is focused on identifying business opportunities and ensuring the success of key strategic initiatives for the company. She works closely with the Executive Team as well as many other Brightway team members to understand where opportunities exist, put plans in place to execute on key priorities and monitor progress to ensure delivery of expected outcomes.


Irina has extensive strategy and operations experience in the insurance industry and deep expertise leading transformational changes from ideation through execution on both the carrier and broker sides of the business.  Irina served as Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at QBE North America, a division of QBE Insurance Group, and Director of Business Development at USI Insurance. 


She earned her Master of Business Administration in Strategy, Finance and Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from New York University.

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Jess Spendley

Jess Spendley

VP, Accounting Operations

Jess first joined Brightway in 2006 as an Accounting intern while attending the University of North Florida and later that year joined the company full-time.

In 2008 she became Accounting Manager and in 2010, she was promoted to Director of Accounting. Jess became Sr. Director of Accounting in 2017 and joined Brightway's Senior Leadership Team as VP of Accounting Operations in 2019.

Our Culture and Core Values

Many companies know what they do. Many do not know why they do it.

Together, the “why” we do business—to help people achieve their personal potential—along with the “how,” guided by our Operating Mandate and Core Values, make us the award-winning independent agency franchise we are today and ensures alignment with our Agency Owners.

Graphic for WIN WIN WIN - Mobile Version

Our operating mandate is WIN, WIN, WIN.

By constantly focusing on producing a win for our customers and a win for our agency owners, Brightway wins. Creating mutually beneficial outcomes for all is the cornerstone of our financially-aligned business model.

Graphic for WIN WIN WIN

Our decisions are guided by our Core Values:

Smart

We are resourceful, accurate and efficient

Accountable

We do it right or we make it right

Trustworthy

We act with integrity, especially when no one is looking

What our franchisees have to say...

Matthew Carlucci, Jr

Matthew Carlucci, Jr

"I think the company culture is outstanding, and the attitude at Home Office is very positive. As a company, Brightway is always coming up with ways to improve every area of our model…and it shows."

Brightway, The Carlucci Agency
Jacksonville, FL

Ashley Doebbeling

Ashley Doebbeling

"The franchisee community is very open to sharing their own office processes and best practices. They make themselves available to anyone in the system who is goal oriented and driven to succeed."

Brightway, The Doebbeling Agency
Fort Collins, CO

Matt Grundwerg

Matt Grundwerg

"The Operating Mandate of Win-Win-Win is one that really resonates with me and my team. As long as we approach every situation with this as our business and moral compass, we just can't fail."

Brightway, Coral Springs
Coral Springs, FL

Bobby Raymond

Bobby Raymond

"Our motto is ‘Always do what's best for the client.’ I feel Brightway Home Office is aligned with that message, because they always work hard to do what's best for both our franchise and our customers."

Brightway, Fort Caroline
Jacksonville, FL

Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas

“I chose the Brightway Insurance franchise because, after meeting with other agency owners and principals of the company, I decided that they were a well-run organization and they provided superior service to their customers. They are also fast-growing and financially strong. This is the type of company that I’d like to associate with.”

Brightway, The Bill Thomas Agency
Wellington, FL

Chris Schmidt

Chris Schmidt

“One of the realizations that I had very quickly but was also successful in knowing was that the franchisor doesn’t drive the business,. The franchisor is there to support you from behind the scenes, and that’s where Brightway adds the most value. Brightway has done a really good job of supporting us as we’ve grown, and we continue to be at the forefront of this unique model they’ve developed.”

Brightway, The Schmidt Family Agency
Harahan, LA

Franchise with Brightway

Learn more about our history and culture, products you'll sell, the companies we work with, our models and more by filling out this form.