The most recognized insurance franchise

Mark Cantin is the President and CEO of Brightway. Cantin 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.

Cantin 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, Cantin 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, Cantin 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.

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

Leslie brings 31 years’ property/casualty insurance experience to her role at Brightway in which she works closely with President and CEO Michael Miller in outlining and executing key strategies as well as leading the day-to-day operations of the company. Additionally, she oversees Brightway's Agency Growth & Development team.

Leslie has been instrumental in growing Brightway into what it is today, spending her first six years with the company as V.P., Agency Growth & Development.

Leslie was named one of the Women in Franchising, leaders influencing the franchise business model, by Franchise Business Review.

Bob brings more than 30 years’ financial leadership experience, many of them in franchising, to his role as Brightway CFO.

This experience, combined with the experience of starting his own business, gives him a unique perspective to Brightway franchisees.

Bob’s role is helping franchisees understand how their businesses are performing through providing a series of push-and-pull management reports that detail operational efficiency along with authoritative analysis of the reports.

His unique business experience also empowers him to lead the company’s efforts in leveraging technology to help make each agency more efficient and profitable.

Bob has been recognized as an “Ultimate CFO” by Jacksonville Business Journal.

Bob brings to Brightway 20 years' experience in technology development, providing technical leadership and overseeing several teams throughout his career.

Prior to joining Brightway, he spent seven years at Fanatics, Inc. where he served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Technology.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

In 2021, the Jacksonville Business Journal recognized Bob as one of the region's Tech Leaders of the Year. 

Prior to joining Brightway in January 2019, Max served as Brightway’s franchise attorney at the leading franchise law firm, Fisher Zucker LLC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During his tenure there, he also worked with over 100 other franchises in a wide variety of industries and presented at the International Franchise Association’s Legal Symposium on multiple occasions.

Max has also served as CFO and In-house Counsel for a privately held company developing a proprietary automated cryptocurrency trading program.

Max holds his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and earned his bachelor’s in Economics from Pennsylvania State University.

Brightway’s Service Center function and employees are managed by Svoboda Advisors, led by George Svoboda. In that role, George leverages his experience to drive the strategy of the Service Center and recruit new talent.

George’s consulting experience includes more than 20 years spent helping companies deliver effective operational and outsourced strategies and service center solutions. He has led strategy and transformational efforts at a top global, multi-line insurance company, advised an industry-leading insurer on their workforce strategy, and led the transformation of the service outsourcing structure for one of the largest wireless carriers in the country.

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.

Chip brings with him 25 years' experience in building, growing, and managing sales and operations teams. He joined Brightway in 2019 and in his role, he helps develop sales tools and strategies that will help the company grow.

 Prior to coming to Brightway, he was the Senior Director of US Sales and Operations at the vitamin supplement firm Designs for Health and spent seven years as the Director of Sales and Operations for Smart Pharmacy Inc., a compounding pharmacy based in Jacksonville. From 2004 to 2012, he was the Director of National Recruiting and Business Operations for Reichard Staffing Inc. in Jacksonville.

Chip earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida State University.

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.

What started out as a vision of how an agency “should” operate and serve customers is today one of the country’s largest Personal Lines independent agencies offering entrepreneurs an opportunity to join the leading insurance agency business opportunity in the U.S.

Under David’s leadership, everything the company does is a win for franchisees and a win for customers. Because of the perfect financial alignment, when these two key stakeholder groups win, Brightway wins.

David’s day-to-day role includes important work in mentoring the company’s future leaders and helping everyone achieve their personal potential.

Michael’s day-to-day focus is setting the strategic agenda for the company, helping Brightway continue to innovate in ways that help everyone associated with the business grow and prosper.

Michael started his career in a high-volume sales call center environment, driving sales and technology innovations that resulted in continuously improved results. He brought that experience forward and built his own mortgage brokerage company before he joined his brother at Brightway.