Stewart Adds Commercial Services Staff in California and Washington State

March 8, 2018

Stewart Title recently announced the expansion of its commercial services in California and Washington. To support this expansion and meet the growing demand in the western United States, Stewart is adding industry veterans to its existing experienced team.

  • Warren Samek will serve as senior vice president and commercial services regional manager for the Northwestern Region. Samek brings with him 20 years of knowledge of technology, business process consulting, business valuation models and business development experience at the executive level.
  • Marion Aaron is a licensed attorney with 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. Prior to joining Stewart as a vice president and commercial services manager for San Francisco, she was a partner at the law firm Berding & Weil, where she represented non-profit mutual benefit corporations and property owners in real estate transactions and corporate governance.
  • Peter Johndrow is a licensed Washington state real estate broker with 23 years of real estate experience, ranging from title and escrow to underwriting and branch management. He will continue to serve as vice president and commercial services manager for Seattle.
  • Rich Blumenthal previously served as commercial services manager and senior underwriting counsel for San Francisco, and will now focus his talents exclusively on underwriting to support clients for San Francisco. He brings more than 40 years of industry legal experience and is a recognized expert in tax-exempt bond financing transactions involving governmental entities, energy-related transactions, and office building and shopping center financing.
  • Shawn Elpel will serve as senior vice president and western regional senior underwriting counsel. He will support commercial services offices in the Western United States by providing commercial underwriting support on numerous multi-site, high liability transactions across the U.S. He has more than 25 years of legal and real estate experience, and is a frequent presenter and lecturer for continuing legal education and real estate seminars, and is certified by the Washington Department of Real Estate to teach a wide variety of real estate-related topics.


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.