Stewart National Commercial Services announced Peggy Sue Lane has been promoted to national sales director effective Oct. 1.
Lane joined the company as the senior vice president and regional manager for Southern California, Arizona and Nevada in March 2021.
Edwin Kezar, Jr. will take over as senior vice president and regional manager for southern California.
“With Peggy’s promotion and Ed’s recent transition to Stewart, we are uniquely positioned to accelerate our current growth trajectory,” Erin Sheckler, head of national commercial services, said in a release. “The addition of industry talent of this caliber will help cement Stewart’s position as the premier title services company within the national commercial space.”
In this new role, Lane will be charged with elevating Stewart’s existing sales staff and building out a national sales team through cross-market collaboration and expanding the portfolio of training and development tools.
Prior to joining Stewart in 2021, she served as a vice president with First American Title Co. and has more than 30 years’ experience in the title industry.
“Stepping into this new role highlights the awareness on the part of Erin and other members of our executive leadership as to the importance of a unified and impactful sales presence nationally, both in the current economy and the forecasted next one,” Lane said. “Working to optimally align our national network of best-in-class sales professionals and concentrate the scope of their impact from state to state will further our standing goal of becoming the country’s premier provider of CRE (commercial real estate) closing services.”
Kezar joins Stewart from Chicago Title where he served eight years as senior vice president of operations for the company’s national commercial services in California. His extensive background in the title industry, along with his regional expertise, will be instrumental in growing Stewart’s southern California footprint and marketshare though regional market strategy and operational efficiency, the company said.
“Becoming part of a well-established legacy brand like Stewart is an exciting opportunity for me,” Kezar said. “With the company celebrating its 130-year milestone along with its recent shift in division leadership, I’m joining the enterprise at a time where past and present are at a very positive intersection and there’s nothing but opportunity looking toward the strength and promise held in Stewart’s future.”