The three recent additions to Title Alliance, Ltd.’s executive team created a C-Suite that is majority female, a rarity in both corporate America and the industry.
Title Alliance’s most-recent appointments included Maria Deligiorgis, general counsel and compliance officer; Sharon Lontoc, chief human resources officer; and Lindsay Smith, chief strategy officer. That trio joined Chief Financial Officer Lillian ReDavid.
Title Alliance CEO Jim Campbell said it was “inspiring’’ to see women from different career paths moving the company forward.
The Title Report recently spoke with Smith, Deligiorgis and Lontoc about the company’s notable appointments.
The Title Report: Why are there not more women in C-Suite positions at title companies and underwriters?
Smith: I think in general women believe that they have to make a decision to have an intense career or to have a family and have limiting beliefs that one cannot co-exist with the other. Women impose, whether self-imposed or society imposed, a feeling of guilt for wanting more, and I believe it causes people to hold back on some of their passions and drive. I believe that having the “both” mentality is what ultimately makes a person successful. I don’t believe that it is isolated to this industry at all.
Deligiorgis: The scarcity of top women executives in the industry continues to appear disappointingly low. However, companies are taking steps to foster gender diversity in their executive leadership and remove biases or potential obstacles to an inclusive management environment. Workforce diversity policies are commonplace and have become the standard in the title industry, yet do not appear to be common among the senior management level of title insurance companies and underwriters, to my knowledge. As more women take on roles in the C-Suite, our hope is that the industry will continue to build and foster a pipeline that will allow companies to continue to promote women across executive jobs and hopefully replace our team and other women colleagues with other capable women.
The Title Report: Are there women in the industry who have been instrumental in your career?
Lontoc: I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by extremely smart, dynamic, strategic and business-oriented colleagues at Title Alliance like Maria Deligiorgis, Lindsay Smith and Lillian ReDavid. All of these women are very empowering and supportive of each other in their C-Suite roles. They set the bar to show you can have it all.
Deligiorgis: Despite advances in female top executive-level participation, there are more men in the industry who have been instrumental to my career; namely, a select few with strategic and visionary thinking such as our CEO Jim Campbell and one real leader who I am fortunate to call a mentor and confidante.
Smith: The woman who first introduced me to title insurance was Ruth O’Connor Gauzza. She was looking for someone to help in her office in the summer many years ago and, as many of us have, I fell into the industry at that moment. She taught me how to clear title by hand; how to calculate taxes by hand; and how to complete a HUD – you guessed it, by hand. When I joined Title Alliance full time in 2005, Patti DeGennaro was on the panel who hired me. She was truly my first female business mentor. She taught me that “A simple cash deal” was anything but simple; to stand up for what I believe will bring change; who gave me opportunities to expand my knowledge by taking me under her wing at conferences and trade shows and introducing me to her network; and ultimately positioned me in what I would later see as the turning point of my career.
The Title Report: How will your presence in such high-profile positions benefit other women?
Deligiorgis: Real meritocracy should be the determiner of criteria for leadership roles. Companies would be well-served to recognize that there are multiple paths to top executive leadership positions, and women could focus their efforts on roles that lead to those paths. Any leader is constantly modeling professional behaviors and a higher-profile position allows more public outreach to other women seeking to learn and to the next generation of industry professionals.
Smith: Reflecting back to the first question – my hope is that women will see that it is not a one or the other, but rather a both mentality. I work incredibly hard and spend upwards of 60 percent of the time on the road strategically aligning our company with our partners, and I have three children for whom I am incredibly present. I sometimes hear women saying how they had to give up who they were to raise their children, but I believe you shouldn’t have to make the choice, and you shouldn’t feel as if you need to give up something. If one woman looks at me and it makes them believe that they can be both a successful business woman and a successful mom, and if one little girl says that they want to grow up and be like me, then I will feel as if I’ve made the most important impact on them that I could.
Lontoc: As CHRO (chief human resources officer), one of my jobs is to cultivate work and learning environments that encourage and support diversity. Hires and promotions are based on merit, but it is important to provide the tools and opportunities to support everyone’s career goals and aspirations within our company as well as the industry as a whole.
The Title Report: Would you steer your daughters into careers in the title insurance industry?
Smith: My daughter is 8 years old and she, along with my twin 7-year-old sons, thinks her mommy is the hardest working person she knows. I believe that all things happen for a reason and that at some point my daughter will also fall into her career. If you ask her today, she wants to be a teacher, a singer and a chef. Whatever her passions lead her toward, I will fully support her. If my daughter wants to follow my footsteps and enter the title industry, I will fully support her and help to guide her. If she wants to try her voice on American Idol, I’ll support her there, too. I think it’s most important that our children – whether sons or daughters – know that they have their mom in their court no matter where life takes them. And being in their court is something that I’m more than confident I can say that I am.
Lontoc: I would encourage not only my daughters but other girls as well to explore any opportunity in title or any other career path or industry of interest. I think the biggest influence is to consistently reinforce that there is nothing out of reach and as cliché as it may be, they truly can be anything and are not limited by their gender.