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Leadership

Helping you reach your potential

Our Leadership Team has an average of 32 years’ experience leading national insurance and financial services companies.

Brightway’s Leadership Team

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David Miller

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
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Michael Miller

President & CEO
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Bob Taylor

Chief Financial Officer
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Kris Azar

VP
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Leslie Wright

Chief of Staff
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Max Staplin

In-house Counsel
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Bob Hitchcock

Chief Technology Officer
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Chip Hyers

VP, Sales
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Jess Spendley

VP, Accounting Operations
Headshot of David Miller

David Miller

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman

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.

Headshot of Michael Miller

Michael Miller

President & CEO

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.

 

It is that drive for results and focus on accountability that Michael brings to bear every day in his work in leading the Executive Team to produce better and better results for business partners. And, it’s those experiences that help him to build future leaders throughout Brightway.

 

Under Michael’s leadership, the Executive Team’s focus is building the best business opportunity in the country, bar none. And, we’re on our way, having already been named the Best Franchise to Buy by Forbes magazine.

Headshot of Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor

Chief Financial Officer

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.

Headshot of Kris Azar

Kris Azar

VP

Kris has more than 30 years’ experience in property/casualty operations.

 

Her experience includes growing world-class call centers from start-up (6 people) to fully mature and thriving (6,000 people).

 

Through her tenure with The Hartford, she wore many hats, giving her a well-rounded background that includes product development, pricing and underwriting, carrier management, marketing and distribution.

Headshot of Leslie Wright

Leslie Wright

Chief of Staff

Leslie brings 31 years’ property/casualty insurance experience to her role at Brightway in which she leads all franchisee-supporting groups including Franchise Marketing and Sales, Onboarding, Agency Support, Agency Development, Agent Training, Marketing/Social Media and PR/Communications/Web.

 

Throughout her career, she’s been instrumental in building tools to help independent agents throughout the country grow profitably. She brings that experience forward as she leads her teams in helping Brightway business partners grow as quickly as possible, starting with comprehensive onboarding and supporting them throughout their careers with world-class marketing and sales tools and consulting.

 

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

Headshot of Max Staplin

Max Staplin

In-house Counsel

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.

Headshot of Bob Hitchcock

Bob Hitchcock

Chief Technology Officer

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.

Headshot of Chip Hyers

Chip Hyers

VP, Sales

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.

Headshot of 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.

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