Mark Garner
Before he ran Canada's most prominent BIAs, Mark Garner operated the Bank of Montreal's mainframe systems. He moved into process improvement - Six Sigma methodology, operational efficiency - then global business development at AT&T NCR across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. After his division was sold, he left corporate. He then had a decorated career: economic development for the City of Waterloo, the Kitchener BIA, nearly a decade running Toronto's Yonge Street BIA. In 2022, he moved to Calgary to run the Calgary Downtown Association - Canada's largest BIA, 120 blocks, 2,500 businesses. He co-founded Bright Blocks because forty years of that kind of knowledge deserved a single address.
Gennaro Silvestri
Gennaro Silvestri has two decades of hands-on leadership across retail, hospitality, culinary experiences, mobile activations, and public-facing businesses. From premium Italian electric vehicle programs to community-based urban initiatives, his work has always focused on creating experiences that bring people together and activate public spaces. Before co-founding Bright Blocks, Gennaro led multiple ventures centered around experiential retail, food and beverage concepts, custom fabrication, and mobile business platforms. His experience includes working with municipalities, BIAs, event organizers, and national brands to deliver engaging, street-level solutions combining creativity with operational execution. Known for his ability to turn ideas into reality quickly and effectively, Gennaro brings a builder's mindset to every project - balancing design, logistics, customer experience, and real-world functionality. He's not just focused on selling ideas; he's focused on making sure they work where it matters most: in the community.
Tiffany Armitage
Tiffany Armitage oversees the operational and financial systems keeping Bright Blocks moving forward - bringing structure, accountability, and execution to every stage of growth. She leads the internal discipline behind the company's day-to-day operations, ensuring projects, partnerships, and large-scale initiatives are delivered efficiently and professionally. Her experience spans operational orchestration, international trade operations, environmental management, procurement coordination, and financial oversight across multiple industries. With a strong understanding of operational infrastructure and scalable business systems, Tiffany plays a critical role in aligning budgets, timelines, compliance, and corporate relationships with the company's long-term strategic vision. As CFO, she supports Bright Blocks through financial planning, reporting, forecasting, and operational analysis - helping transform ambitious concepts into sustainable, executable programs. Her ability to bridge operational execution with financial strategy provides the foundation that allows Bright Blocks to scale its solutions for clients and communities, remaining agile, community-focused, and value-driven.
Janette MacDonald
Janette has spent her career energizing downtowns and championing the small businesses at their core. Over 17 years, she built Downtown London into an award-winning BIA, guiding a comprehensive five-year strategic plan that included a major real estate assessment, a targeted business recruitment strategy, and a dynamic downtown activation plan. She also played a key role in advocating for a downtown campus for a community college and the creation of a flexible, people-first street. A former CEO of Downtown London and board contributor to the International Downtown Association and Ontario Business Improvement Area Association, she most recently drove growth across Canada for Miconex's Downtown Gift Card program. Today, through Core-In-Motion, she's doubling down - supporting the organizations that fuel independent business success.
Raj Taneja
Raj has been paying attention to how cities actually work since the early 1990s - organizing communities, connecting people across neighbourhoods, and watching what happens at street level long before anyone called it data. The problem he kept running into was the same one BIAs face today: the work is real, but making it visible to the people who fund it is hard. Boards need numbers. Funders need evidence. Good programs get cut because the story never got told in language the room could act on. That's the gap Raj has spent thirty years learning to close - inside companies, governments, and institutions across North America and Asia, wherever good work needed to be made legible to the people holding the budget. Today he spends most of his time advising organizations and founders on putting AI systems to work that actually deliver - practical tools that reduce noise and surface what matters. At Bright Blocks he leads the intelligence layer: the sensors, dashboards, and AI workflows that make every program measurable and defensible. His job is to make sure the work on the street becomes a number a board can act on - and a story a BIA can tell with confidence.
Matthew Rai
Matthew Rai is a business strategist, operator and advisor with experience across community development, food production, agriculture and artificial intelligence. Over nearly a decade, he helped scale Lina's Italian Markets from one location into a multi-location retail, hospitality and distribution business approaching $30 million in annual revenue. His work has included pasta production, farming and agricultural initiatives, commercial development, supply chains, technology implementation and business consulting. At Bright Blocks, he focuses on strategic partnerships, business development and creating practical opportunities that strengthen local businesses and communities.