Built by a facilities manager who was tired of vendors.
A cleaner facility, on a schedule you can set your watch by.
Brightwork was founded in 2011 by Dana Restrepo, a facilities manager who was tired of vendors who promised the world and showed up when they felt like it. The idea was simple: treat a cleaning contract like an operations contract — a written scope, a measured frequency, a named account manager, and crews you can actually rely on. Today Brightwork runs recurring programs for offices, clinics, warehouses, and storefronts across Chicagoland with W-2 employees we train, insure, and background-check ourselves.
What we believe
A clean facility isn’t a luxury — it’s health, safety, and the first impression every client and employee gets. It deserves to be run like an operation: measured, documented, and accountable. That belief shows up in everything from our written scopes to our monthly inspection reports.
Who we are
We’re 420+ active contracts, 180+ W-2 crew members, and a leadership team that has spent careers inside facilities. We train, insure, and background-check every cleaner ourselves — no sub-contractors, no gig labor.
The people who own the work.
Dana Restrepo
Founder & CEO
Spent a decade managing facilities before founding Brightwork in 2011 to build the vendor she always wished she could hire.
André Coleman
Director of Operations
Runs crew training, dispatch, and quality control across every Brightwork program in the metro.
Mei-Lin Wong
Compliance & Healthcare Lead
Builds and audits the infection-control protocols for Brightwork’s medical and clinical accounts.
Rashida Bell
Director of Client Success
Leads the account-manager team — the named contacts who own every Brightwork client relationship.