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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 35 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

Shane Blazek Learn More

Shane Blazek

Chief Technology Officer
Rick Fox Learn More

Rick Fox

Chief Revenue Officer
Eliah Kahn Learn More

Eliah Kahn

Head of Customer Experience
Barbara Ring Learn More

Barbara Ring

Chief Human Resources Officer
Clayton Vigrass Learn More

Clayton Vigrass

Chief Operations Officer/Interim Chief Financial Officer
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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 InsurTech 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 “InsurTech Firm of the Year” by Finance Monthly and “Best InsurTech 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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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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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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Barbara Ring

Barbara Ring

Chief Human Resources Officer

Barbara is Brightway’s Chief Human Resources Officer.  She is responsible for developing and executing a human resources strategy to ensure we recruit and retain a skilled workforce dedicated to exceeding the expectations of our agents and customers.

 

With over 30 years of Human Resources experience, Barbara is well positioned to support Brightway’s rapid growth and culture of winning through collaboration.  She has positioned a venture-capital-backed business to grow into Fortune 500 company, and developed and directed the global human resources agenda for over 21,000 employees in 12 countries for Prudential Financial.  She has also held senior executive roles at AXA Equitable and CHUBB Insurance.

 

Barbara earned her B.S. in Organizational Management from Nyack University in New York. 

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Clayton Vigrass

Clayton Vigrass

Chief Operations Officer/Interim Chief Financial 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.

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. Please note: P&C insurance experience is strongly preferred in most markets at this time.