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The National Settlement Services Summit is recognized as the leading live conference in the title insurance and settlement services industry. Each year, we bring the best and brightest to the Summit to educate the industry on proven business models, innovative methodologies, market developments and compliance matters. Our speakers are established, top-notch leaders in their fields and are recognized on international and national platforms.
James Lockhart - Keynote Speaker
James B. Lockhart III is Vice Chairman of WL Ross & Co. LLC and a member of the Management Committee and Investment Committees for the WLR Recovery Funds, Invesco Mortgage Recovery Funds as well as other funds. His responsibilities include overseeing financial services portfolio companies and sourcing new opportunities in the financial services industry. Prior to joining WL Ross in September 2009, he was the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the twelve Federal Home Loan Banks, and its predecessor agency, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, since May 2006. He served as the Chairman of Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board and a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Board with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the Secretaries of Treasury and HUD, and the Chairman of SEC. For the prior 4 years Mr. Lockhart was the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of Social Security, Secretary to its Board of Trustees and a member of President Bush's Management Council. Mr. Lockhart also served in the previous Bush Administration as Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from 1989 until 1993.
Mr. Lockhart co-founded and served as managing director of NetRisk, a risk management software and consulting firm serving major financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and investment management firms worldwide. He held senior positions at National Reinsurance, Smith Barney, Alexander & Alexander and Gulf Oil, in Europe and the U.S. He has served as a member of the American Benefits Council's Board of Directors and of the Advisory Board to the Task Force for the Critical Review of the US Actuarial Profession. He is a director of Bank of the Cascades, Shellpoint Partners and the Bruce Museum. In 2009, he received The American Financial Leadership Award from the Financial Services Roundtable. He is a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the UK. Mr. Lockhart is a co-chair with former Senator Conrad (D-ND) on the Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings.
Mr. Lockhart graduated from Yale University with a BA and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. He served as a Lieutenant (j.g.) in the U.S. Navy aboard a nuclear submarine.
Keynote Speaker
James Lockhart
Former Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and Vice Chairman, WL Ross & Co. LLC
Brett Barratt
Brett J. Barratt graduated from Westminster College in 1999, and earned his Juris Doctorate degree, cum laude, from Michigan State University College of Law in 2003. While in law school he was a member of the Jessup Moot Court Team and a Note and Comment Editor for the Michigan State University College of Law's Journal of International Law. Additionally, he clerked for the Canadian National Senate's Parliamentary Counsel and worked as an intern for the Honorable Judge Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the Sixth Circuit.
Barratt practiced bankruptcy law, creditor's rights, reorganization and civil litigation with the firm Shea & Carlyon, Ltd., in Las Vegas, Nevada. Subsequently, in February of 2005, he began working for the Nevada Division of Insurance as Insurance Counsel and Hearing Officer. In 2009, he was promoted to the Chief Insurance Assistant; and in 2010, he was appointed Insurance Commissioner for the state of Nevada by Governor Gibbons and subsequently retained in that position by Governor Sandoval. In August of 2011, Barratt had the opportunity to move home to Utah where he was appointed Deputy Insurance Commissioner by Utah Insurance Commissioner Neal T. Gooch and was retained by Commissioner Todd Kiser upon Commissioner Gooch's retirement. He is involved with all aspects of state insurance regulation on the state and national level and follows closely international insurance issues.
Barratt resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in his free time enjoys traveling, golfing, skiing, fishing, mountain biking and camping.
Brett Barratt
Deputy Commissioner
Utah Department of Insurance
Jeff Bluhm
Jeff Bluhm, Executive Vice President, Agency Services & Administration, joined Old Republic National Title Insurance Company 35 years ago. Jeff's tenure with Old Republic Title includes audit and financial roles, Vice President Operations, Manager of Corporate Strategy and Development and his current role. Today Jeff's responsibilities include support and service programs for Old Republic Title's agency managers, agency representatives and their independent agency network, plus oversight of all risk management and administration that touch independent agents. Jeff is also a member of the American Land Title Association's Best Practices Executive Committee.
Jeff Bluhm
EVP Manager – Agency Services and Administration
Old Republic
Dama Brown
Regional Director, Federal Trade Commission
Dama Brown is the Regional Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Southwest Region, which covers Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. As Regional Director, Ms. Brown oversees litigation involving unfair or deceptive acts or practices or rule violations. She has supervised matters including automobile and home financing, consumer credit, debt collection, mobile technologies, and telemarketing. She also speaks to business, industry, media, and consumer groups about consumer protection issues and regulation.
Prior to becoming Regional Director, Ms. Brown was a staff attorney with the FTC in Atlanta. In that role, she brought regulatory enforcement actions against debt collectors, mortgage relief service providers, mortgage brokers, and precious metals dealers. Ms. Brown was the lead attorney in FTC v. American Precious Metals, LLC, a case in which the promoters of a bogus investment scheme agreed to a $24 million settlement to resolve charges that they conned consumers into buying precious metals on credit without clearly disclosing associated costs and risks. She also negotiated a $7.5 million settlement with Mortgage Investors Corp., representing the largest fine the FTC has ever collected for alleged "Do Not Call" violations and the first action enforcing the Mortgage Acts and Practices advertising rule. In recognition of her accomplishments, she received the FTC's Paul Rand Dixon and Janet D. Steiger awards for excellence. Ms. Brown joined the FTC in 2006 after spending ten years in private practice in metro Detroit.
Dama Brown
Regional Director
Federal Trade Commission
Jeffrey Bode
Jeffrey E. Bode is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mid America Mortgage, Inc., a mortgage banking company headquartered in Addison, TX. In addition to servicing traditional loan markets, Mid America's 1st Tribal Lending division is the nation's leading Native American housing lender under the HUD Section 184 Loan Guaranty Program. Mr. Bode has a demonstrated history of success, having managed three financial companies over the course of his career. He founded the original Mid America Mortgage in 1989, and was the first lender to develop a technology interface within the Calyx Point LOS platform. He founded Moncor Tax Advisors in 2006, which became the largest single family tax lien company in the State of Texas in only 2 years. Mr. Bode also owns and manages Mortgage Machine Services Inc., a mortgage technology LOS provider whose platform Mid America Mortgage still utilizes today. Mr. Bode purchased Schmidt Mortgage Company in 2010, incorporating the Moncor production and Mortgage Machine LOS platform into operations. Due to the extensive transition, Schmidt Mortgage was rebranded in 2010 as Mid America Mortgage, Inc (reviving his prior company's name), to more accurately reflect the company's national footprint in the mortgage industry. Mid America is currently licensed in over 44 states with more than 250 employees.
Mr. Bode is originally from Geary, Oklahoma, an agricultural community driven by oil and gas industry. He graduated from Oklahoma State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics. This background gives him a unique understanding of rural proprietors and their lending needs. This history has also shaped the values at the core of Mid America's operations – customer service and community involvement. Active in political issues since childhood, Mr. Bode has influenced legislation through close associations with state regulators and law makers. His active involvement in both the mortgage lending and technology arenas have kept Mr. Bode on the front line of the sweeping changes facing the industry, and the challenges of growing a business during these times. He continues successfully grow his businesses as the market evolves and collaborate with legislators on various issues facing the industry.
Jeffrey Bode
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mid America Mortgage, Inc.
Scott Chandler
Scott Chandler, Chief Operating Officer for Westcor Land Title Insurance Company, has been in the title insurance industry since 1983, starting his career in Seattle with Safeco Title as an examiner trainee. He spent the next 10 years working in various roles for Safeco and then Chicago Title including production, sales and management. In 1995, he made the transition to National title and escrow servicing, working for Commonwealth One-Stop in Pennsylvania at their then One-Stop headquarters.
In 1998 Scott went to work for United General Information Services, a sister company of United General Title, managing their title and escrow national servicing unit. In 2000, Scott moved in to Agency Services working for United General Title. After UGIS was acquired by GE Capital he oversaw the National title and escrow services division including underwriting, financial reporting and business development for GE Capital Residential Solutions. He was promoted to Senior Vice President –Western Regional Manager with responsibility for several western states.
Scott joined Westcor Land Title Insurance Company in 2006, as Vice President –Western Regional Manager, opening the Western Regional Office in Denver, CO. He grew the region from three employees with agencies mostly in Colorado, Utah and Nevada to a hub office with oversight of the Mid-West, Texas and Mountain Region offices.
Scott is actively involved in industry association and trade groups and frequently participates in various industry events as a subject matter expert and panel moderator. For more than 31 years, Scott has dedicated his career to title insurance and gained extensive industry experience.
Scott has a BS degree from the University of Washington in Economics and A.A. degree in Real Estate.
Scott Chandler
Chief Operating Officer
Westcor Land Title Insurance Company
Drew Coleman
In 2001, Drew graduated from college, enjoyed a nice long three day weekend, and then got to work.
Now, 16 years later, he's become one of Oregon's most decorated real estate brokers. In 2016, Drew was the second highest-producing broker at the Hasson Company, a brokerage with no short supply of talent, as it ranks first in the Pacific Northwest when comparing average sales volume per broker. He earned that rank with an astonishing 105 transactions that year.
A well-traveled soul, Drew even spent some time living in Prague, when his father, a nuclear chemist, worked there. Drew is quick to tell you that out of all the places he's been, there's no place in the world like Portland. It's why he chose to make it his lifelong home and place of business, long before the market became what it is today, and he calls it the perfect backdrop for his lovely wife and three energetic children.
Drew's team now encompasses six members, and between them they serve both buyers and sellers across the metropolitan area, from Gresham to Hillsboro. When asked what's influenced the success of his business, Drew points towards genuine empathy and a spirit of collaboration with his clients, an exhaustive work ethic, and an embracing of the digital market space.
Drew Coleman
Principal Broker
Hasson Company Realtors
Tom Cronkright
Thomas W. Cronkright II is the co-founder and CEO of Sun Title. Over the past twelve years, Sun Title has grown into one of the largest commercial and residential title agencies in Michigan and has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 company the last three consecutive years, 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For, and 50 Businesses to Watch in Michigan. Tom is a licensed attorney, and frequent speaker on real estate and title topics and an award winning business leader.
Tom is also the co-founder of CertifID, a real-time identity and document verification system to prevent fraud in the title and lending industries. He and his business partner, Lawrence Duthler, created the solution in response to the accelerating instances of fraud hitting the industry.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Tom was an attorney in the business and corporate practice groups of Warner Norcross & Judd LLP and Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, P.L.C. Tom received his B.A. degree in finance from Western Michigan University and his law degree from Wayne State University.
Tom Cronkright
Owner & CEO
Sun Title
Aaron Davis
Aaron M. Davis is the founder and CEO of AMD Enterprises, a conglomerate of business ventures including Florida Agency Network (FAN), Premier Data Services (PDS), Hometown Title Network (HTN), BPM Solutions, Sunshine Insurance Partners (SIP), Network Transaction Solutions (NTS), AMD Holdings, Alexander Oaks Office Park, and several others.
He has grown Florida Agency Network (FAN), a statewide network of independent title agencies, serviced by FAN's closing support services and ancillary solutions providers, from one office into one of/the biggest network in Florida. PDS has evolved into one of the settlement services industry's go-to sources for IT and managed services.
He created NTS, a national mobile settlement signing, eSigning and notary service provider, for off-site closings and BPM Solutions and the Hometown Title Network both offer back office and ancillary support and settlement solutions. He offers property and casualty insurance through Sunshine Insurance Partners. Davis was also featured as a Trendsetter in The Title Report.
Art Davis
Art has represented escrow settlement providers and other clients in Washington DC since 1992. His representation has covered all regulatory, legislative and judicial matters at the federal level that affect, or could affect, these interests. As well Art has worked in collaboration with many lender, title and Realtor organizations located in the Washington DC area to affect and minimize the impact of federal legislation and regulations on small business. He has represented clients before the US Congress and numerous agencies including HUD, CFPB, Treasury, Commerce, State and the FTC. His representation includes the Coalition to Save Seller Financing, with the preparation of a white paper and assistance in drafting recommended regulatory text and legislation.
Art began his career at a major international accounting firm. He then spent 5 years at the US Treasury Department working on federal tax regulations and rulings. Since 1991 he has served a wide variety of clients as a private consultant-advisor with his primary work being to represent the American Escrow Association. He has spoken to numerous groups and organizations on a wide variety of federal regulatory and other technical topics.
Art is married with 3 children.
Ruth Dillingham
Ruth A. Dillingham is VP Corporate Underwriting for First American Title Insurance Company. In that capacity she works on issues relating to lending, compliance, and conveyancing practices. Prior to joining First American Title she was in private practice in the Boston, MA area for 20 years. She is a frequent speaker for both attorney/agents and lenders.
Ms. Dillingham is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (1975, cum laude) and Boston University School of Law (1978). She is a member and past president (2008-2010) of the Abstract Club, member and past president (1996) of the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts, member and past president of the New England Land Title Association (2008), and a member and past chair (2003) of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association where she currently is the compliance committee co-chair.
Steve Gottheim
Steve is counsel for the American Land Title Association. In that role he is the associations chief corporate counsel providing strategic legal advice to the association's leadership, executive staff and various departments and programs. Additionally, Steve serves as the head of public policy development for the association. He is a recognized authority on the topics of consumer financial laws including RESPA, TILA and Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the ALTA Title Insurance & Settlement Company Best Practices and market conditions in the title insurance and settlement service industry.
Previously Steve worked as legal fellow for former Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) on the Senate Banking Committee during the passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (TARP), and a small community based lender. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park and the University Of Maryland School Of Law.
Joe Grabas
Director, Grabas Institute
Joseph A. Grabas, Educator, Author, Historian and Forensic Title Expert, has worked in the title industry since 1977 and is recognized as a Certified Title Professional by the New Jersey Land Title Association and a National Title Professional by the American Land Title Association. He is widely acknowledged as the premier land title lecturer in New Jersey.
Joe has been accepted and qualified as a land title expert by the NJ Superior Court. For the last three decades he formerly owned & operated a successful title agency and one of the largest title search companies in New Jersey. He has a long history in land title education. Joe is a Licensed Title Producer and Certified Title Insurance Instructor by the NJ Dept of Banking and Insurance. He instructed the Title Insurance Pre-licensing Education course for many years at Rutgers University, Drew University and Bloomfield College. In 2008, Mr. Grabas founded the Grabas Institute for Continuing Education, LLC and is authorized by the NJ Supreme Court, NJDOBI and the NJ Real Estate Commission to provide continuing professional education to the Title, Legal, Real Estate & Insurance fields.
Mr. Grabas serves on the NJ State Tidelands Council, the ALTA Education Committee and as a Historical Commissioner for the County of Monmouth. He is a Past President of the New Jersey Land Title Association and a visiting lecturer at Monmouth University. He is the author of the award winning book Owning New Jersey.
John Hollenbeck
Executive Vice President
First American Title Insurance Co.
John Hollenbeck
John Hollenbeck is executive vice president of First American Title Insurance Co. Hollenbeck has held various positions with First American over his 37-year career. He began his career with First American in 1980 working as a Title Searcher in the Riverside, Calif., office. In 1983, he moved to the Orange County title branch and served as a Title Officer and production manager. In 1989, Hollenbeck moved to the home office in Santa Ana, Calif., and became Assistant Senior Underwriter. He was named Senior Underwriter in 1994, and in 1997, he took the newly created position of National Title Processes Director charged with improving efficiencies across all title operations. In 2004, Hollenbeck was named Executive Vice President of First American Title Insurance Co.
Richard Horn
Richard Horn led the final TRID rule while a Senior Counsel & Special Advisor in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Regulations. He also led the CFPB's design and consumer testing of the TRID disclosures. Richard is one of the foremost experts on the rule. He is currently in private practice at Richard Horn Legal, PLLC.
Prior to joining the CFPB, Richard was a Senior Attorney at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the New York Regional Office. At the FDIC, Richard worked on consumer compliance and risk management supervisory matters and enforcement actions, including TILA, RESPA, RESPA section 8, UDAP, HMDA, and fair lending.
Richard advises depository institutions, non-depository mortgage lenders and brokers, investors, title insurance companies, and technology vendors on all federal and state consumer finance regulatory compliance matters, including RESPA section 8, Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage, Loan Originator Compensation, UDAAP, HMDA, fair lending, and TRID. He also conducts staff training on TRID and other issues, and file reviews for his clients.
Kirk House
Product Manager, Title & Closing Solutions, Ellie Mae
Kirk House is the product manager for title & closing solutions at Ellie Mae, and focuses his efforts on connecting business partners though intuitive interfaces backed by solid integrations. Kirk brings enterprise integration and workflow solution management expertise to his role, and worked extensively with Encompass Lenders (and ClosingCorp) to prepare for the TRID regulatory and workflow changes.
Brian Hughes
Brian Hughes is the Chief Operating Officer for Title Source, one of the largest providers of title insurance, appraisals and settlement services in the nation. Hughes' focus is dedicated to the management of a national title and closing vendor network, client growth and staffing needs. He is responsible for engaging with the company's production teams to improve overall operational efficiencies and workflow production.
Recently, Hughes spoke at the 2016 National Notary Association Conference during a panel discussion titled: "Protecting Borrower's Privacy is Not an Option: What Every NSA Must Know." The discussion helped share best practices with signing agents on how to protect a client's personal information.
Hughes has earned Lean Six Sigma Champion and Green Belt certificates − a managerial concept course that eliminates various wastes within an enterprise and drives business results. He has also completed the Everest Leadership Training Program, which helps make businesses more productive and competitive through people.
Hughes offers nearly 30 years of experience in the national settlement services industry and is a licensed title agent in multiple states. He began his career in settlement services as the Director of Operations at Lenders Services, Inc. after graduating from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.
Jeffrey Joseph
Jeffrey Joseph currently serves as Assistant General Counsel with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation where he advises department staff on insurance regulatory issues. One of his primary responsibilities over the last several years has been the regulation of title insurance. Prior to joining the Office of Insurance Regulation, he served as an Assistant State Attorney in Central Florida and has been a member of law firms in both Tallahassee and Orlando. He received a B.A. from the University of Florida and a law degree from the Cumberland School of Law.
John Lartz
Deputy Director, Division of Financial Institutions, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation
John Lartz
Since mid-2015, Lartz has been the Deputy Director of the Division of Financial Institutions, which is one of four divisions in the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). From 1995-2007, he worked for IDFPR as the Chief of Business Prosecutions in the Division of Professional Regulation. He has had his own law practice; worked for USG Corporation, a Fortune 500 corporation; and has worked for several general practice law firms in Chicago.
He has had wide-ranging experience in the law, with extensive involvement in real estate-related matters including: transactions, development, taxation and litigation. He has also worked in insurance coverage litigation, estate planning, and administrative hearings and other general areas of law.
John Levonick
John Levonick has rich experience of advising mortgage industry participants on compliance, risk management and related legal matters. His expertise spans a wide array of consumer financial services regulatory compliance requirements and asset classes, including infrastructure related concerns, such as privacy, including TILA (Regulation Z), RESPA (Regulation X), FDCPA, UDAAP, FCRA/FACTA, ECOA (Regulation B), HMDA (Regulation C) and GLBA. He assisted clients in interpreting compliance requirements, developing risk mitigation strategies and implementing the requisite controls within technology platform(s) to best protect the individual client.
Levonick works with creditors, servicers, secondary market participants and technology vendors in providing guidance on mortgage lending laws such as TILA, RESPA, FDCPA, FCRA/FACTA, ECOA, HMDA and GLBA (including fair lending, state anti-predatory and consumer credit). He was also responsible for overseeing the compliance content of vendor technology platforms, including policy tracking, interpretation and rule implementation. His experience as Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, Regulatory Counsel and Associate General Counsel in the mortgage lending industry has given him the skills to provide the guidance and direction required to navigate the challenges of a constantly changing regulatory environment.
Levonick earned his Bachelor of Arts from Eastern Connecticut State University and his J.D. from the University of Miami, School of Law.
Ken Markison
Ken Markison is Vice President and Regulatory Counsel at the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington, DC, where he works on and represents the mortgage industry on a very wide range of legal and regulatory issues. These include virtually all matters under the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA), TILA RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID), Fair Housing Act, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act and numerous other laws and regulations affecting the industry.
He joined MBA following a thirty-two year career in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. At HUD, Ken served as HUD's Assistant General Counsel for Government Sponsored Enterprises/RESPA. He was one of the principal architects of HUD's first RESPA Reform Rule and HUD's GSE rules. Earlier, he was instrumental in developing the HUD-Federal Reserve Report on Reform of TILA and RESPA as well as the HUD-Treasury Report on Curbing Predatory Lending. He also represented HUD on the staff of the Oversight Board for the Resolution Trust Corporation.
Ken received his BA and his JD, with honors, from the George Washington University and is admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia and Maryland. He is a frequent speaker on legal issues facing the mortgage industry and can be reached at email@example.com.
Marianne Mathieu
Marianne is a 20+ year veteran in the real estate industry where she held a variety of roles covering three states. Before becoming an agency representative, she was an auditor for an underwriter, and a manager of a title insurance/settlement agency where in addition to being operations manager, she ran the post-closing and accounting departments that averaged 150 closings per month.
Marianne is active in the title insurance and real estate industry. Currently, she is an active member of the Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW NY) chapter where she serves as a board member and treasurer and the American Land Title Association (ALTA) where she is active on several committees. She is a member of the executive committee and has served in several capacities as an officer of the New York State Land Title Association (NYSLTA); Chair of the Title Insurance Section (2009 – 2010), Treasurer (2010 – 2014), President-elect (2014 – 2015), President (2015 – 2016) and Immediate Past President (2016 – 2017)
American Land Title Association awarded Marianne the designation of National Title Professional in May 2013 and in February 2015 Sokol Media selected her as one of "15 Women to Watch in Real Estate in 2015". Real Estate Forum magazine named her a "2015 Woman of Influence".
As a national agency account manager with Fidelity National Title Group, Marianne works with multi-state title insurance agencies in both the commercial and residential sectors and am responsible for maximizing profitability and optimizing opportunities in technology, business relationships, market growth and operation improvements to ensure the long-term profitability of my customers.
J. David Motley
David Motley, Chairman-Elect of the Mortgage Bankers Association, is President of Colonial Savings, F.A. and its divisions — Colonial National Mortgage and CU Members Mortgage.
Colonial Savings, a federally chartered thrift institution headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, maintains a network of eight depository branches and 23 loan production offices, and now services more than $26 billion in residential home mortgages. With more than 36 years in the banking and mortgage finance sector, David oversees the management of consumer/commercial banking; consumer direct, retail and credit union mortgage channels; as well as human resources, legal and marketing functions.
David has been an active member of MBA for more than two decades. He serves as the 2017 Chairman of MBA's Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He has also served on MBA's Board of Directors for six years, and has served on MBA's Residential Board of Governors (RESBOG) since 2008, including two years as RESBOG Chair. David has participated on MBA's Secondary and Capital Markets, Residential Loan Production and Loan Administration Committees, and as the Servicing-21 Working Group Co-Chair. He has received MBA's Andrew D. Woodard Distinguished Service and Top 25 Member Heads of Mortgage Awards. Dedicated to grassroots advocacy, David has been an active member of the Texas MBA (TMBA) since 1995. With the TMBA, he has served on numerous committees including Government Relations, Convention, TMBPAC, Legislative, and Young Mortgage Bankers. He served on the Board of Directors from 1999-2005.
He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, is a graduate of the School of Mortgage Banking, and holds a Certified Mortgage Banker designation. David was also a member of the Community Bank Advisory Counsel for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau in 2015 and 2016.
Joseph Murin
Joseph J. Murin is currently the Chairman Emeritus of Chrysalis Holdings LLC and the Chairman of JJAM Financial Services LLC. He originally joined Chrysalis as its Non-Executive Chairman in September 2012. Chrysalis Holdings includes companies in the analytics and mortgage sectors. It also operates a University that specializes in the licensing and training of mortgage bankers, which includes NewDay USA Foundation, a philanthropic organization that provides aid and resources to our nations' veterans. In addition to his Chrysalis Holdings duties, he also serves as the Chairman of JJAM Financial Services LLC, a financial services holding company which owns and operates Commonwealth USA – a nationwide SOC2, Type II audited title and settlement company, which provides a financial consulting service to the mortgage industry.
Murin joined ANC Acquisitions LP in July 2011 as its CEO. ANC is a Fortress Investment Group financial services company founded to provide products and services to the financial services industry. ANC specialized in the areas of mortgage lending, mortgage servicing, asset-based lending, compliance, and analytics.
Mr. Murin is the former Chairman of The Collingwood Group LLC, which was co-founded by Mr. Murin and Brian Montgomery, former FHA Commissioner, in 2009. After co-founding The Collingwood Group, Mr. Murin and Mr. Montgomery immediately merged their organization with Capital Financial Solutions, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm. The Collingwood Group's primary focus is in the financial services sector and offers business advisory services combined with access to decision makers, financial sponsors, corporate boards, and senior industry executives. The company also provides business development opportunities and initiatives through commercial and government contracts, utilizing minority- and women-owned businesses as well as capital investments in small businesses.
Prior to co-founding The Collingwood Group, Mr. Murin was President of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), after being nominated for the position by President Bush on October 11, 2007. He served as a consultant to the White House until he was confirmed by the Senate in June 2008. During his tenure with Ginnie Mae Mr. Murin oversaw its mission to make affordable housing a reality for millions of low- and moderate-income households across America, and he led the transformation of Ginnie Mae through a difficult time in the housing and mortgage arenas. Under his leadership, Ginnie Mae continued to provide much needed liquidity to the industry as it grew its portfolio from $350 billion to $840 billion and grew its penetration in the Asian markets from 30% to 48%. In addition to the substantial growth of the organization, Mr. Murin directed the formation of a comprehensive risk management initiative.
Preceding his nomination to serve as President of Ginnie Mae, Mr. Murin brought more than 40 years of diverse experience in the financial services, mortgage, and banking industries to the Agency – experience that included the position of CEO of several financial organizations such as Century Mortgage, Basis 100, Lender's Service Inc., and MSNi LLC. He began his career with Pittsburgh National Bank in 1972.
Mr. Murin holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from National Louis University. He is actively involved with the board of trustees as Investment Committee Chairman for Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA and Chairman of the Governance committee of the board of directors for Cherry Hill. He and his wife, Angela, reside in Pittsburgh and have two daughters and five grandchildren.
Chuck Myers
Chuck currently supervises the Real Estate Settlement Agents (RESA) Investigations Section for the Virginia State Corporation Commission, Bureau of Insurance. Chuck formed and led his team toward the review, renovation and successful adoption of the Virginia Administrative Code concerning Final Rules and Regulations Governing Settlement Agents. His current responsibilities include management of awesome team who investigate violations of Virginia insurance laws and regulations as it pertains to Real Estate Title Settlement Agents.
Chuck came to the State Corporation Commission from the Virginia State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation where he served as a Special Agent Accountant and Certified Crime Scene Analyst. Chuck holds a Master's of Science in Management Risk Management and Insurance from Florida State University and a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Chuck maintains credentials as a sworn law enforcement officer from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. His professional designations include Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Crime Scene Analyst and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter.
Mary O'Donnell
President and CEO, Westcor Land Title Insurance Company
Ms. O'Donnell is President and CEO of Westcor Land Title Insurance Company, a national title insurance underwriter. As CEO, Mary's expertise spans the full range of operational functions drawing on her prior role in legal management. Mary was recruited and appointed to the role of CEO in 2004. Under her leadership, the company has grown from a three-state underwriter with a handful of employees and gross revenues of approximately $40 million, to a national underwriter grossing in excess of $500 million and employing a staff of seasoned key professionals.
Mary was born in Liverpool, England. She graduated with honors from the University of Sheffield College of Law, Yorkshire, England in 1984 (LLB 1984). Mary is admitted to practice law in the States of New York and Florida.
Prior to entering the title insurance industry, Mary practiced law in New York representing lenders in commercial and residential real estate transactions. In 1989, she entered the title insurance industry serving in various roles providing legal support to all functions of the company while recruiting and training a staff of underwriters and claims personnel.
Mary serves on various committees at the American Land Title Association and is a member of the Board of Governors. She also sits on the MBA Residential Board of Governors. Mary is a member of the New York and the Florida Bar Associations.
She resides in Florida with her husband Kevin, and they enjoy playing tennis and traveling.
Mark Palim
Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist, Fannie Mae
Dr. Mark Palim is Fannie Mae's Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. Reporting to the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Dr. Palim is responsible for overseeing the Economic and Strategic Research Group's forecasting functions. He also manages multi-disciplinary partnerships across the company to address specific business issues facing Fannie Mae. Dr. Palim is a key spokesperson on economic trends and a frequent speaker at national mortgage finance and housing industry events.
Prior to joining Fannie Mae in 2009, Dr. Palim was an economic consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and LECG. His practice focused on applying economic and financial theory to a variety of business disputes and policy questions. He worked as a consulting and testifying expert in antitrust cases and disputes in the financial services industry. In addition, Dr. Palim led a team of 75 adjudicators charged with valuing claims for the Department of Justice and the Special Master administering the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Dr. Palim's involvement in economic forecasting and mortgage securities began in 1988 as a Portfolio Manager at Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company, where he also reported to the Chief Economist. Subsequently, he continued his work on macroeconomic and policy issues as a Staff Economist for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions.
Rajasekhar Penugonda
Raj Penugonda is the eMortgage Program Manager at Freddie Mac. He is responsible for managing and improving the competitiveness of Freddie Mac's eMortgage Program. In addition to managing internal strategic initiatives, he works very closely with various industry organizations and manages several joint GSE initiatives at the direction of FHFA to grow the eMortgage adoption in the industry.
Penugonda has 15 years of experience in the residential mortgage industry covering origination and default servicing areas. Prior to joining Freddie Mac, he was with Bank of America and Wells Fargo in several roles including product management, change management and process design.
Tali Raphaely
Tali Raphaely is the president and managing member of Armour Title Co. Armour Title conducts thousands of real estate transactions nationwide annually and works regularly with the nation's leading real estate brokerages, banks and mortgage companies. During Raphaely's decade in the real estate industry, his title companies have conducted tens of thousands real estate purchase and refinance transactions. As owner of his company he has employed, managed and mentored hundreds of people, encouraging and showing them how to grow professionally and personally.
Most recently, Raphaely participated in a Blockchain pilot study in Cook County, Ill. The pilot is designed to test Blockchain applications of property title transfer and a system for filing liens; compatibility between a Blockchain and a traditional, server-based set-up; fraudulent use prevention and conveyances of vacant property in Chicago. He will be sharing his experience and insights at NS3.
Raphaely is also the recipient on the October Research Philanthropy Award in 2016.
Penny Reed
Penny Reed is Vice President Strategy and Financial Reform at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and a Certified Mortgage Banker. A 34-year veteran of the mortgage industry, Reed has been with Wells Fargo for 28 years in various positions including underwriting, credit risk management, capital markets, strategic partner management and agency relations. Her current role is focused on external outreach and the impacts of financial reform on industry partners.
In addition to her mortgage experience, Reed is a veteran of the U.S. Army and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern New Hampshire with a degree in computer information systems.
Kathy Riland-Hinton
Director of Strategic Media Initiatives, Meridian Title Corporation
Kathy joined Meridian Title Corporation in 1991 as an Account Manager. In her tenure, she has held a variety of other positions that include Sales Manager, Director of Marketing and Sales and Director of REO/Relocation. Currently, Kathy serves as the Director of Strategic Media Initiatives, responsible for implementing and maintaining Meridian Title's own various social media platforms and supporting Meridian Title's web services. Due to her extensive industry knowledge, Kathy has developed the company's corporate training program.
Francis 'Trip' Riley
Francis "Trip" Riley assists clients who are facing complex civil litigation filed by a single plaintiff, as well as class actions, relating to commercial and consumer financing, consumer facing services and product sales, and business to business transactions. He prides himself on understanding his clients' unique businesses and partners with them to help achieve results in line with their goals in the often highly-charged setting of commercial, consumer and corporate litigation. When a difficult disputes cannot otherwise be resolved, Trip and his team are prepared to go to trial.
Real Estate Settlement Services
Trip is the co-leader of a team of attorneys that represent and counsel real estate settlement services industry clients, including mortgage lenders and brokers and loan servicers; real estate brokers; title insurance underwriters and agents in civil litigation/class actions, government investigations and enforcement actions, and regulatory/compliance counseling and business matters. As part of his practice, Trip counsels on and litigates issues related to CFPA's UDAAP Provisions; RESPA; TILA; Reg. X; Reg. Z; ECOA; FRCA; TCPA, FDCPA; FACTA; Consumer Data Protection, Use, and Cyber Security; HOEPA; Fair Foreclosure Acts; insurance rate issues' and other statutory and common law consumer complaints. Trip also represents settlement service providers in governmental investigations and enforcement actions. He has litigated numerous other commercial disputes in which his settlement services industry clients have been a party. Trip also provides administrative and regulatory counseling on existing operational issues and proposed product and service programs and affiliated business arrangements to settlement services industry clients.
Consumer Products and Services
Trip is also a member of a team of Saul Ewing attorneys that represents consumer facing services and products companies in their effort to comply with federal and state consumer protection laws, regulations and guidance. Trip also defends these clients in singleplaintiff and class actions again claims of consumer protections law violations. In addition to settlement services companies, these clients include clothing and other product retailers, restaurant and other hospitality companies, student loan servicers, consumer finance companies, and higher education institutions.
Title Claims and Coverage Disputes
Trip also leads a group of attorneys in all of Saul Ewing's offices who represent title insurance underwriters, their insureds and title insurance agencies it commercial and residential title related disputes. He also provides counseling to and defends title insurance underwriters in policy and closing protection and closing services letter coverage disputes. Trip has litigated and taken such matters to trial in many state and federal courts.
Financial services
Trip represents financial services clients in a wide variety of actions (including class actions that arise from complex commercial transactions and relationships) in state and federal courts throughout the United States and before arbitrators. He has also been involved in a variety of statutory and common law fraud, unfair competition, tortious interference, civil RICO, and civil conspiracy actions.
Francis "Trip" Riley assists clients who are facing complex civil litigation filed by a single plaintiff, as well as class actions, relating to commercial and consumer financing, consumer facing services and product sales, and business to business transactions. He prides himself on understanding his clients' unique businesses and partners with them to help achieve results in line with their goals in the often highly-charged setting of commercial, consumer and corporate litigation. When a difficult disputes cannot otherwise be resolved, Trip and his team are prepared to go to trial.
Real Estate Settlement Services
Trip is the co-leader of a team of attorneys that represent and counsel real estate settlement services industry clients, including mortgage lenders and brokers and loan servicers; real estate brokers; title insurance underwriters and agents in civil litigation/class actions, government investigations and enforcement actions, and regulatory/compliance counseling and business matters. As part of his practice, Trip counsels on and litigates issues related to CFPA's UDAAP Provisions; RESPA; TILA; Reg. X; Reg. Z; ECOA; FRCA; TCPA, FDCPA; FACTA; Consumer Data Protection, Use, and Cyber Security; HOEPA; Fair Foreclosure Acts; insurance rate issues' and other statutory and common law consumer complaints. Trip also represents settlement service providers in governmental investigations and enforcement actions. He has litigated numerous other commercial disputes in which his settlement services industry clients have been a party. Trip also provides administrative and regulatory counseling on existing operational issues and proposed product and service programs and affiliated business arrangements to settlement services industry clients.
Consumer Products and Services
Trip is also a member of a team of Saul Ewing attorneys that represents consumer facing services and products companies in their effort to comply with federal and state consumer protection laws, regulations and guidance. Trip also defends these clients in singleplaintiff and class actions again claims of consumer protections law violations. In addition to settlement services companies, these clients include clothing and other product retailers, restaurant and other hospitality companies, student loan servicers, consumer finance companies, and higher education institutions.
Title Claims and Coverage Disputes
Trip also leads a group of attorneys in all of Saul Ewing's offices who represent title insurance underwriters, their insureds and title insurance agencies it commercial and residential title related disputes. He also provides counseling to and defends title insurance underwriters in policy and closing protection and closing services letter coverage disputes. Trip has litigated and taken such matters to trial in many state and federal courts.
Financial services
Trip represents financial services clients in a wide variety of actions (including class actions that arise from complex commercial transactions and relationships) in state and federal courts throughout the United States and before arbitrators. He has also been involved in a variety of statutory and common law fraud, unfair competition, tortious interference, civil RICO, and civil conspiracy actions.
Loretta Salzano
Loretta Salzano founded Franzén and Salzano in 1997 after serving as in-house counsel to financial institutions. Loretta manages the firm's state and federal compliance practice. She is also a founder of ComplyShare, a mortgage compliance company.
Loretta advises banks, mortgage lenders, and other settlement service providers on how to increase their business while remaining within the confines of the laws of all 50 states and federal law. Loretta advises her clients regarding fair lending, compensation, marketing, licensure, fees, disclosures, reporting, and other matters related to their products and services. She drafts and negotiates contracts, including service agreements, compensation agreements, loan purchase and sale agreements and warehouse documents. Loretta also assists clients in responding to regulatory examinations.
Loretta was named a Top Compliance Lawyer by Mortgage Compliance Magazine, is a Fellow of the
American College of Consumer Financial Services Attorneys and serves as Legal Counsel to the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia. She frequently speaks on mortgage issues. Loretta received her B.A. with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
David Shean
Dave began his real estate career in 1965 when Transamerica Title was building a microfilm title plant in Los Angeles. He worked his way over the next 42 years in Plant Building, Title and Escrow Training, Real Estate Sales, Branch Manager, Escrow Administration. In 2007 Dave was given the opportunity to reinvent his services by offering dedicated "ON CALL" Contract Escrow Administration, Traveling Notary services, Escrow and Notary Litigation Consultation and Expert Witness Testimony.
Late in 2011 Dave also became the California Business Representative for Evergreen Note Servicing.
Dave earned his CSEO (Certified Senior Escrow Officer) designation in 1987, his CEI (Certified Escrow Instructor) credential in 1995 and his CNSA (Certified Notary Signing Agent) designation in 2007.
He was President of the Ventura County Escrow Association in 1985 and the California Escrow Association in 1988. He has earned many company and Escrow Association Awards including the CEA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and the AEA Earl G. Barrett Memorial Award in June 2010. In 2014 Dave was named the National Notary Association "Notary of the Year" and is a 2015-17 NNA Notary Ambassador.
Dave has been the Escrow Associates of San Gabriel Valley Chair of the annual City of Hope Blood and Platelet Drive Chair and has donated platelets over 175 times. He is currently an active member of several regional escrow associations, the Escrow Institute of California and the American Escrow Association. Dave regularly attends many Southern California Escrow Association Dinner Meetings. He currently represents CEA as a past President and since 2000 has been representing AEA and/or CEA at various levels working with MBA and major lenders on Closing Instruction collaboration solutions.
He has been an escrow and notary seminar instructor and guest speaker at various national, state and regional Escrow Associations, The Escrow Institute, California Bar Association, CLTA and ALTA, October Research, various Associations of Realtors and the National Notary Association.
Dave enjoys fresh chocolate chip cookies and spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren.
Kate Steineman
Kate Steineman is Vice President, Business Liaison Manager within the Strategic Engagement Management team at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Her current teams have responsibilities within the title and settlement space, from the relationships with title underwriters; to managing title and settlement agent performance and managing the internal database of those agents who close Wells Fargo retail transactions. She has been with Wells Fargo for 18 years and has held positions in Sales, Sales Management, Vendor Management, Implementation, Risk and her current role.
Marx Sterbcow
Marx Sterbcow is nationally recognized as one of the leading legal authorities in the financial settlement services industry. Sterbcow's practice focuses on RESPA, UDAAP, TILA, Fair Lending Act, FTC, and other administrative and regulatory compliance issues. He advises banks, mortgage lenders, title insurance agencies and underwriters, law firms, and real estate brokerage companies across the nation regarding affiliated business arrangements, third-party vendor management auditing, regulatory enforcement issues, social media oversight, mergers and acquisitions, marketing and advertising agreement compliance, lead generation programs, and promotional advertising program guidance.
Sterbcow graduated from Tulane University with a B.A., Gonzaga University School of Law with a J.D., and the John Marshall School of Law's Center for Real Estate Law with an LLM. Among his many accolades, he was recognized as a Trendsetter by The Title Report.
Marvin Stone
Marvin Stone holds the position of SVP, Business Integration for Stewart. He is currently focused on improving the consumer experience through eSign, eClosing and eMortgage efforts and works closely with real estate, mortgage and title innovators in partnership with industry associations and technology vendors. Since joining Stewart in 2007, Stone has overseen a wide variety of technology, process and compliance initiatives across the direct, agency and centralized title divisions, which most recently included CFPB TRID implementation. Prior to joining Stewart, he served as CIO for a large, West Coast title agency and held strategic positions with other national underwriters and mortgage lenders. Stone is a frequent speaker at title, mortgage and real estate industry events and is active social media including Twitter posts on the latest in FinTech found @MarvinStone.
Patrick Stone
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Williston Financial Group
Pat has enjoyed a lengthy career in real estate and real estate related services, including "C" officer positions with three public companies and as a director on two Fortune 500 Boards. The senior executive management positions included nine years as President and COO of the nation's largest title insurance company, Chairman and Co-CEO of a software company and CEO of a real estate data and information company.
Pat also served as Vice-Chairman of Metrocities Mortgage, a 2005 top twenty mortgage lender, and as Chairman of The Stone Group, an Austin, Texas based tenant-rep brokerage company. Additionally, Pat served on the Boards of World Minerals, DigitalMap, Homegain, RedVision, Wystein Capital, and Inman News, who named him one of 2013's "100 Most Influential People in Real Estate."
Pat's Philanthropic involvement has included service as Chairman of the Santa Barbara Art Museum and as a Director of the Portland Art Museum. He is a past chairman of the Oregon State University Foundation, and Co-Chair of its Billion Dollar Capital Campaign.
Pat lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Vicki and youngest daughter Samantha.
Ken Sykes
Ken Sykes has been engaged in residential lending for over 30 years. He has held positions as President of Advantage Capital Mortgage of the Carolina's and Vice President of Advantage Capital Mortgage of America. Ken was instrumental in the foundation of these companies whose primary focus was engaging in ABA relationships with Real Estate Companies in North Carolina and other states. From 1995 until 2010 Ken has served as President of Affiliated Mortgage in a partnership with a large Raleigh real estate firm and for the past six years has served as President of North State Bank Mortgage. Ken is a member RESPRO, a mentor in the NC State Poole College of Management, and serves on the advisory committee for American Mortgage Conference.
Justin Tucker
Justin's role is to empower WEST clients in the space where technology, sales and marketing overlap, and he does so for the fastest growing title underwriter in the nation. He collaborates every day with top producing Realtors, mortgage lenders and title agents to forge comprehensive and effective business plans (leveraging technology) that enable substantial growth.
Justin also works with WEST internal sales professionals, helping them to build a compelling, authentic approach for title clients seeking to partner in the real estate market. He is heavily involved with the internal development of WEST technology initiatives, as WEST works tirelessly to reinvent the closing experience seeking to deliver a faster, more efficient and hassle free process for all parties involved.
Justin has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Oregon State University and an MBA with concentrations in Marketing & Real Estate from Marylhurst University.
Julie Vore
Julie Vore is the Mortgage Markets Originations Program Manager within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's division of Research, Markets & Regulations. In this role, she serves as a resource for CFPB decision makers to understand common industry practices and business requirements and for mortgage industry stakeholders to understand current and ongoing CFPB activities.
Prior to joining the Bureau in 2013, Vore served in roles at JPMorgan Chase and Fifth Third Bank in mortgage sales, mortgage sales management, and mortgage servicing.
Brian Webster
Brian Webster is a senior vice president for Wells Fargo Home Lending, a Wells Fargo company and one of the nation's leading providers of residential mortgages.
Brian joined Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in September 2015 as the Strategic Planning Manager within the Strategy and Financial Reform team. As the Financial Reform Strategic Planning Manager, Brian is responsible for leading and influencing the development of initiatives based on policy and direction emanating from the regulatory agencies. In this role, Brian drives the execution of Home Lending's strategic vision through interpretive research and planning in alignment with long term goals and objectives.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Brian served as the Mortgage Markets Originations Program Manager at the CFPB. During his tenure, he served as CFPB's expert in residential mortgage originations and technology. He was responsible for overseeing policy and research initiatives designed to evaluate how housing finance mechanisms work. He developed strategies on how to improve primary market operations and originations for residential mortgages from the viewpoint of consumer protection. During his time at the CFPB, Brian played several critical roles across the CFPB – the Mortgage Regulatory Implementation initiative, major rulemakings such as Title XIV, TILA/RESPA and HMDA, data standardizations and the Know Before You Owe Closing Time initiative which focuses on improving the consumer's experience during the mortgage closing process.
Before the CFPB, Brian was the Vice President of the Mortgage division at Overture Financial Solutions, a software and professional services firm specializing in credit risk management and automated decision tools for lenders, investors and both federal and state financial agencies. Before joining Overture, he held positions at Freddie Mac, PC Lender and began his mortgage banking career at Colorado Federal Saving Bank as a mortgage consultant. He served 10 years in the United States Navy and holds a B.S. in Finance from Hawaii Pacific University and a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Thomas Edison College.
Greg Wright
Greg Wright, president and founder of The Wright Track Consulting Group, has traveled the country for the last two decades working as one of the Title Industries leading business growth specialist. As a former marketing rep, sales manager and county manager, he has first hand experience at the day-to-day challenges title companies face. He has made over 20,000 face to face sales calls with his rep training program, trained hundreds of Escrow officers and closing staff on how to raise the bar on customer service and held intensive leadership conferences for executive management. Greg's practical strategies have become a "shot in the arm" for companies with a demand for an increase in market share and better overall results from their employees.


text:
Primavera Sound 2011
Assemble, we, en masse. In writing about any event such as this, an undeniable temptation exists to envelop it within a broader political, or narrower personal, context. What does this mean for us, as people, and for me as an individual?
For the political, one might consider the Arab Spring. That 100,000 people from around the world can gather together, with no designs on changing the world, with no higher purpose than to enjoy three days of glorious music, having paid a developing world fortune, is surely worthy of celebration. This is political freedom. Is this not, in essence, what the young protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Libya have been fighting for?
Parc Del Forum is not Tahir Square or Tiananmen: this is not the Arab Spring writ Spain.
For the Spanish Spring, or Summer as it must surely be by now, is indeed taking place. While this cultural event is taking place at an expedition centre on the edge of town, a few miles up the road Spain's students are engaged in a struggle of their own. Currently occupying Placa Catalunya, "Los Indignados" are not celebrating their political and economic liberties by attending a concert but are, as in the Middle East, calling for change. While not seeking to depose a dictator or defenestrate a monarch, they are nonetheless demanding better governance and popular responsibility for the plight of their country. Even if not being forcibly suppressed, their goals must be seen as similar. With unemployment reportedly at 22%, far from being a big deal, this rock festival begins to feel very small indeed.
So to the personal then. Am I at a critical juncture? Is my attendance at this festival likely to be transformative? Ed Harcourt sang about being "in the twilight of my youth"; I don't think I'm there yet. While my approach to this kind of thing is distinctly more grown up than in the past I am still far from growing out of this kind of thing. This is far from the last of these that I will attend and next year will probably be no different. While in the background and at home life, and drama happens, for a week these are on pause. This is my escape.
Today's Excitement Includes:
- Big Boi
- Of Montreal
- Das Racists
- The Walkmen
- The Flaming Lips
Humanitarian Intervention: Why questions of law and morality are missing the point.
Humanitarian Intervention is 'the threat or use of force across state borders by a state aimed at preventing or ending widespread and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of individuals over than its own citizens, without the permission of the state within whose territory force is applied.'[1]
Humanitarian intervention is a subject upon which much has been written and yet, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union there were very few examples, if any, of such interventions taking place. Throughout the Cold War while conflicts between states broke out, were fought and resolved, with a few exceptions they tended to be explicitly justified on grounds of direct or indirect self-defence. Geo-political interest was the watchword of the era. While state-sponsored human rights abuses were viewed with horror when revealed to the world at large, intervening on humanitarian grounds was a luxury that few could afford when higher stakes were in play. With the collapse of that greater threat and a gradual dwindling of the importance of "strategic interest" came a reassessment of the West's role with regards to other countries and the conduct of states towards their own people. "The responsibility to protect" is how it was seen by less cynical commentators[2] while others looked on with skepticism as neo-conservatives and neo-imperialists flouted centuries old international legal standards under the guise of altruistic missions.
The legal aspect concerns the necessary violation of state sovereignty which must take place in the course of any act of humanitarian intervention Sovereignty, the very foundation of international state system and a recognized feature since the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, provides states with legally recognized responsibility for affairs within its borders and protection against interference across. A state or coalition of states presented with an obligation or opportunity to conduct an humanitarian intervention must consider, confront and overcome this obstacle before it can take place. In the first part of this essay I will examine the historic origins and contemporary understandings of sovereignty and the extent to which it serves as an actual or artificial impediment to humanitarian intervention taking place. In this section, with the help of Michael Walzer and others, I will look at the extent to which humanitarian intervention is compatible with the concept of Just War Theory and will also consider whether sovereignty, as theoretical construction, is undermined by the implicit acceptance of humanitarian intervention as a norm of state behaviour. Throughout this section I will try to determine whether respect for the sovereignty is ever truly an obstacle to intervention on humanitarian grounds, or if it merely serves as a convenient rhetorical device, enabling reluctant statesmen to look the other way while acts of atrocity are taking place in distant lands.
In this essay's second section I will look at the political question. The nineties, in its way, changed everything. Although not central to it, it should not be seen as coincidence that the dawn of cheap mass media was heralded just as the question of humanitarian intervention could increasingly be found at centre stage. Freed from the constraints imposed by the Cold War, state action was no longer a matter only for statesmen; politicians' denial of knowledge was no longer plausible; too late would be too little as the likes of CNN relayed footage around the globe in real time and in graphic detail. In developed liberal democracies the vox populi was able to weigh in on foreign policy decision making, as well as on domestic matters, and took on a new and additional political dimension. An intervention of one state by others or another will always have some form of political impact, either between states or within them, and can be positive or negative. Conversely, to not intervene will have political implications for those involved – although rare is the occasion where a political leader been punished at the ballot box for ignoring the plight of a distant people. In sum, the question remains, has the political dimension found its way to the centre of the humanitarian issue, or is it still a less significant concern than the legal element and, as we will analyse first, the moral?
Common intuition tells us an intervention which is truly humanitarian in nature should be driven by matters of morality. In reality we know this is not, and can not ever be, true as state decision making is a complex process and yet politicians and those leading interventions are humans and humans are indeed driven by moral concerns. Political leadership carries with it the capacity to act against evil and therefore, to no small degree the burden of responsibility to do so
Rarely can a single factor be seen to carry enough force to steamroller all others and render them irrelevant. The notion of "humanitarian intervention" is not a scientific one and is employed as a catch all for such interventions that project a strongly recognizable humanitarian motive. However, as Mona Fixdal and Dan Smith argue, and as we shall discuss, '[h]umanitarian intervention is never purely humanitarian.'[3]
The Legal
When thinking about humanitarian intervention, the legal considerations are centred on the globally understood and applied understanding of state sovereignty. As Holzgrefe's articulation makes clear, any humanitarian intervention must involve the use of force across state borders without the permission of the state concerned with inevitable consequences on the sovereignty of that state, if not on the concept of sovereignty itself. International law's attention with regards to humanitarian intervention in a contemporary context tends to focus on the balancing of state sovereignty against human rights[4], which is to say that right of the state to the monopoly on the use of force within its demarcated territorial boundaries is near but not absolute.
The modern idea of a sovereign state ruling territory with fixed borders stems from the 1648 treaties of Münster and Osnabrück which were signed to end thirty years of war in Westphalia. Widely recognized as officially heralding the arrival of the modern state system, the Treaty of Westphalia marks the transition "from a 'global' medieval world to a world in which one political authority, the territorial state, came to dominate both the local and the global"[5]. This new system of exclusion and inclusion enabled legalized relations between states and provided the ultimate legal authority with regards to war until the founding of the United Nations in 1948.
The idea of sovereignty has moved on significantly since its earliest incarnation, with "popular sovereignty" now as commonly understood as it was once unthinkable. As has been said "Even the most tyrannical ruler claims his people love him"[6]. In that respect is essay is being written with pertinent timing as a UN backed coalition of military forces is in the process of conducting an intervention in the North African state of Libya. That Gaddafi, in attacking his people, had surrendered his claim to being the sovereign leader of Libya was put forth by some as sufficient to render null and void the arguments in defence of sovereignty and the right of the sovereign to non-intervention: 'The norm of non-intervention cannot protect genocidal and other practices that are themselves proscribed by international laws and treaties.'[7]
The founding of the United Nations and the signing of the UN charter eroded to some extent the state monopoly on the use of force. With member states requiring Security Council authorization to be granted before going to war*, the UN charter can be seen as simultaneously reducing and expanding the grounds for war, while further enshrining rather than threatening the firmly established norms sovereignty and of non-intervention with one notable exception.
A direct reaction to the Nazi crimes of the holocaust, the Genocide Convention of 1948 was designed to prevent such atrocities being repeated by calling upon its signatories to "prevent and punish" it wherever it should occur[8]. Yet even this single example does not provide the legal authority for a state to act unilaterally , instead requiring that "the competent organs of the United Nation… take such action as they consider appropriate."[9] That customary international law established and maintains a right to unauthorized intervention is an argument made by some scholars yet this argument serves more as a post hoc political justification rather than one which carries actual legal standing and will permit an humanitarian intervention to take place in the future.
Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars provides one of the most commonly referred to authorities on the legality of and in war, also known as the Just War tradition, which prescribes the conditions under which the resort to war is legal as well as the standards of behaviour that must be adhered to once states are at war. Vattel saw domestic jurisdiction to be completely inviolable but determined that subjects have the right to resist a tyrannical sovereign and that 'if by his insupportable tyranny he brings about a national revolt against him – any foreign power that is asked to do so may assist the oppressed subjects.'[10]
A UN security council resolution authorizing military action is deemed to be supra-legal, trumping sovereignty as a barrier to intervention. The 1999 NATO use of force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia took place without UN authorization and was the first example since the founding of the UN that an unauthorized breach of sovereignty had occurred on explicitly humanitarian grounds.[11] That it was explicity and brazenly in contravention of UN rules on the use of force was not sufficient to prevent it from happening when the political conditions favoured it. The law denied the right so the willing statesmen denied the law.
Chris Brown asserts that "there is nothing inevitable, much less natural about the understanding of systems of inclusion and exclusion which has been promoted , explicitly or implicitly, by the discourse of political theory over the past three or four hundred years"[12]. Rather than being distinct from the political, he would, one feels, regard the legal and political arguments for or against humanitarian intervention as being part and parcel of the same thing. The legal arguments serve as a political tool when they are helpful, disregarded as an insignificant political inconvenience when they are not. A UN security council resolution authorizing the use of force is the required legal standard and yet, when one is tabled, it is always the product of political maneuvering and negotiations between states. If a resolution is not tabled or does not come to a vote then it is almost certainly because those negotiations have failed and those seeking permission to intervene have been rebuffed. But that does not mean an intervention will not take place.
Those calling for a doctrine of humanitarian intervention do so out of the belief 'that states should forfeit their right to be treated as sovereign if they massively abuse the human rights of their citizen.'[13] Yet if such a doctrine were to enter into force it would be rendered functionally impotent by the need for any employment of it to be accompanied by a UN security council resolution and the veto power in the hands of all five permanent security council members. A legal ruling permitting intervention would make it no more likely; its absence makes it no less so.
Sovereignty is undeniably important, separating as it does the domestic and international realms, and yet when it comes to governance of intra-state behaviour and humanitarian intervention in particular does it really have the capacity to inhibit military action when the overwhelming political will is to intervene? While an intervening state or coalition of states will always prefer that their actions be regarded as legal but illegality will illegality alone be enough to prevent an intervention where the political will for it exists? In the next section we will focus on the political elements.
The Political
The politics of humanitarian intervention too broad in scope and encompasses too many issues to be comprehensively covered here. For our purposes, "the political" should be understood to refer to refer to all factors that policy makers must take into account, when considering an humanitarian intervention, that are neither moral nor legal in their defining character. If we see the legal sphere as the most impersonal or "external" of the three in nature – the set of factors over which the politician can have the least influence – the moral sphere is easily the most personal in tone. The political realm therefore falls somewhere between the two and might otherwise be described as "the rational". By this I mean that it is the field where calculable costs and benefits of likely action or inaction are pitted against each other, and where questions such as "is it right to intervene?" and "is it legal to intervene?" have no place. The political is, above all else, about "interests".
The interests that may be in play, although too numerous to be listed in full, can range from a fear of damaging relations with a international diplomatic ally or trade partner to concerns over losing domestic political support in other policy areas. Equal, opposite and almost as common, an intervening politician or state might be charged with using an ostensibly humanitarian mission to disguise motives of personal or national self-interest. One example of the former can be found in the recent intervention in Libya, where President Sarkozy of France was accused of leading the charge towards a no-fly zone partly to demonstrate his global leadership credentials, in light of domestic polls showing him heading towards an humiliating electoral defeat[14]. Similarly it was suggested by some that in 1998 President Bill Clinton had pushed for an intervention against Serbian forces in Kosovo in part to distract attention from impeachment proceedings threatening to bring down his presidency[15]. In reality, Libya was less about the presence of political opportunity gain and more about the absence of political opportunity cost. That the Arab members of the UN security council were persuaded to vote in favour of Resolution 1973 meant that China and Russia would not exercise their right of veto, thus serving the moral instincts of those leading the charge. That the resolution could be executed with minimum resouces deployed – limiting the likely domestic fallout – only supported the political case in favour.
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 presents the textbook example of politics triumphing over concerns of morality and, also of sovereignty. Bill Clinton has cited the failure to exercise moral leadership and to be politically courageous, to provide US military support for the UN troops that were already there, as the greatest regret of his presidency[16]. The massacred Tutsis were not merely victims of Hutu genocidaires, but also of an international community and body politik still reeling from the failures of the previous year's humanitarian mission in Somalia. Graphic images of the bodies of dead US army rangers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu had sent shockwaves through the American political system in particular, with the electorate demanding to know why American soldiers had been sent in to resolve an African conflict and rescue far off victims of an humanitarian crisis for which they were not responsible. Domestically Bill Clinton paid no price for turning a blind eye to the atrocities that occurred in Rwanda, comfortably achieving re-election the following year; the only electorate to whom he was responsible tacitly endorsed his decision to allow hundreds of thousands of African men, women and children.
The Moral
"The interests the national society for which government has to concern itself are basically those of its military security, the integrity of its political life, and the well being of its people. These needs have no moral quality."[17] The views of George Kennan, the father of containment policy, ring loudly yet must be heard within the context of a time when interests and a realist approach to international affairs.
That morality is to the state, and the statesman, a luxury, is certainly true. Also true however, is that the end of the Cold War made it a luxury that a great many more states could afford, as the existential threat abated almost overnight. Although security concerns still loomed large, they did not dominate the consciousness of statesmen as they had for the more than thirty years prior. The liberal internationalist viewpoint, prominent in the aftermath of World War I and subsequently suppressed, was "that moral parochialism was breaking down" and that as a result "principles of an incipient genuine international morality could be discerned"[18] Liberal internationalists were those who saw an opportunity for political leaders "to reshape the character of international affairs and to bring their own personal moral standards to bear upon the making of foreign policy."[19] With the threat of mutually assured destruction abated states were in a position to look beyond mere self-survival and consider, once again employing foreign policy for moral, or greater, purposes. This, coupled with the rise of key political leaders such as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, both of whom carried their moral outlook much more prominently than their conservative predecessors, presented once again the opportunity for moral as well as mere political leadership to figure on the global stage.
Yet for every Kosovo and Sierra Leone – Bill Clinton described the NATO bombing of Serbia as "a moral imperative"[20] while Blair later described the action in Sierra Leone as the UK's "only successful humanitarian intervention"[21] – where interventions, supported by claims of morality, took place, there have been many instances where the moral imperatives were just as strong but where the cries for help went unheeded by Western powers. Rwanda is the most commonly cited example of this, while the massacre of eight thousand Bosnians at Srebrenica in 1995 and Darfur in the 2000s are often also named as an humanitarian interventions that didn't take place[22].
The recent and ongoing intervention in Libya is almost universally regarded as being a righteous, or just intervention. Even those that disagree with it tend to do so on the basis of jus in bello[23] or hypocrisy[24] without necessarily questioning the morality of taking action. Why Libya in 2011 and not Iran in 2009? Why not Yemen in 2011? The answer to those questions can lie only in the surrounding politics and the costs and benefits of acting. As Michael Walzer states that 'humanitarian intervention is justified when it is directed against actions that contravene the moral convictions of ordinary people.'[25] Yet while intervention might be morally permissible in those circumstances, there is no universal doctrine that commands it and while individual consciences may be shocked, "politics has no conscience"[26].
Of those statesmen that speak of moral and ideological stances on intervention Jean Bricmont perceives an insidious motive and makes a more damning and broader indictment, condemning them as opportunists inclined to exploit a crisis for individual or national political advantage. He criticizes the Western sense of human rights and humanitarian intervention, attacking their misappropriation as ideological tools to justify and raise popular support for neo-imperial warmongering[27]. 'Power' he argues 'habitually presents itself as altruistic' while '[i]deology has the advantage of enabling people to live in a state of mental comfort where they can avoid asking troubling questions'[28] Similarly, the earlier liberal internationalists were criticised by the likes of E.H. Carr describing the idea that peace on earth was in everyone's interest as being a projection of a "hope that Anglo-American dominance could be maintained without the necessity of war."[29]
There is no question that morality is a crucial factor, and often any discussion around humanitarian intervention will be preceded by an event that triggers a collective moral outrage. Any call for humanitarian intervention is always preceded by a catalyst in the form of a self-proclaimed "shocked conscience". As there are no uniform global standards of morality, 'clear examples of interventions with disinterested motives are rare.'[30] self-proclaimed moral motives are often called into question and political motives typically assigned in their place.
In the Twenty Year Crisis, E.H. Carr wrote that "politics will, to the end of history, be an area where conscience and power meet, where the ethical and coercive factors of human life will interpenetrate and work out their tentative and uneasy compromises."[31] This is a neat way of enabling us to understand the relationship between the three and the central role that politics plays to connect them.
In an era in which conflict between states has massively declined it was perhaps inevitable that international community should concern itself with conflicts within states and the actions of governments towards their people. The capacity to act to deny states the right to abuse their citizens is greater than ever, as the propagation of communications sources has enabled people to inform themselves of such abuses taking place in distant lands. The questions of when states should intervene, and how they should do so have long troubled politicians, commentators and people alike, as has the selective nature of intervention: if we will intervene in X, why are we not prepared to do the same in Y? The answer to this is, of course, politics. While the law seeks to impose an external consistency on action, and the moral looks to achieve consistency of a personal kind, the politics is where statesmen accept that they cannot always act as they should or as they would like. As accusations of hypocrisy are hurled from one side and cries of criminality from the other these must be tolerated for the state is, itself, neither a legal not a moral actor but a political one.
The essential premise of this essay's question presumes that a dilemma of humanitarian intervention will tend to bring issues of legality, morality and politics into conflict and although this is often true, it isn't always. In fact, humanitarian intervention is most likely to take place when the three are in agreement and come together in cooperation. It is least likely to occur when none or only one of these groups of factors favour it. As to which of the three carries the most weight we might be best served by turning to Clausewitz' famous quote that "war is politics by other means". An act of humanitarian intervention, however noble the cause for which it is pursed, is also an act of war; the decision to dispatch one's military resources into war is taken by politicians and is therefore an inherently political one. The law, for example in the form of a United Nations security council resolution, can come to the assistance of a willing coalition and legitimize an intervention but it need not serve as an obstacle to it. The intervention in Libya did not happen because of UNSCR 1973; Kosovo did happen absent UN Security Council authorization. Similarly, the failure of the international community to intervene in any meaningful way Darfur or, even less ambiguously, Rwanda was not due to the absence of legal authority but the lack of political will, which never even requested it. None of this is to say that moral convictions, in the hands of a strong political leader, can not prove irresistible but that absent the right political conditions it will still amount to very little.
If moral factors were dominant, we might expect humanitarian interventions to occur rather more frequently than they do; if the law carried greater standing the reverse would likely be true. As it is, political factors, although often driven by moral considerations and taking into account legal ones, are by far the most influential. A legal right to intervene for humanitarian reasons will likely never be officially adopted, in part because it might allow room for abuse, but predominantly because it does not need to be for humanitarian interventions to take place. Nor would the existence of such a doctrine – as we have seen when looking at the Genocide Convention in relation to the Rwandan Genocide – make intervention any more likely when the political winds are blowing in the other direction.
The question the statesman must ask ultimately himself is, 'is a proposed operation likely to be effective at an acceptable cost to those who will bear the burden of intervention?'[32] This is not a matter of law or morality but of political judgement. Legal and moral forces are important in considerations of humanitarian intervention and, when raised, both will serve to sway political will towards or away from action. That said, while a humanitarian intervention is most likely to take place when all three pillars are support the case for it, the central political pillar is only one without which the entire case will collapse.
[1] Holzgrefe, 2003, p18
[2] The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, as http://www.iciss.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf last accessed May 3 2011
[3] Mona Fixdal and Dan Smith, 'Humanitarian Intervention and Just War', Mershon International Studies Review, p284
[4] Fixdal and Smith p288
[5] Chris Brown, Sovereignty Rights and Justice p22
[6] Odyssey Dawn: A Discussion on Military Operations in Libya, as found at http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&bookmarkedmessageid=2490989&boardid=40&threadid=86517, last accessed May 3 2011
[7] Fixdal and Smith p290
[8] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as found at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html last accessed May 3 2011
[9] Ibid
[10] Simon Chesterman, Just War or Unjust Peace p19
[11] Arkadiusz Domagal, Humanitarian Intervention: The Utopia of Just War? The NATO intervention in Kosovo and the restraints of Humanitarian Intervention, as found at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sei/documents/wp76.pdf last accessed May 3 2011
[12] Brown p25
[13] Nicholas Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society p114
[14] Jonathan Freedland, Libya Crisis May Save Sarkozy from Electoral Humiliation, as found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/20/libya-crisis-nicolas-sarkozy-electoral last accessed May 3 2011
[15] Hitchens: Clinton Could Sell Out Blair, June 3 1999, as found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/354470.stm last accessed May 3 2011
[16] David Jackson, One Reason for Obama's Decision on Libya: Rwanda, last accessed at http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/03/one-reason-for-obamas-decision-on-libya-rwanda/1 on May 2nd 2011
[17] George Kennan 1985 http://www.politics.ubc.ca/fileadmin/template/main/images/departments/poli_sci/Faculty/price/Kennan.pdf
[18] Robert W. McElroy, Morality and American Foreign Policy, p8
[19] Ibid p12
[20] Clinton Address on Kosovo, March 24 1999, as found at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/address_3-24.html, May 2 2011
[21] Julia Mackenzie, Sierra Leone's Failing Health, as found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6231905.stm May 2 2011
[22] Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
[23] Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p60
[24] Robert M. Hayden, 'Humanitarian Hypocrisy', E. Eur. Const. (1999; 91,8)
[25] Walzer, p43
[26] Dmitry Medvedev, quoted at: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8545618-the-un-security-council-rejected-the-demand-of-libya-to-hold-an-extraordinary-meeting, last accessed May 3 2011
[27] Jean Bricmont, Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War, p42
[28] Ibid, p44
[29] E.H. Carr The Twenty Years Crisis, 1919-1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations, p76
[30] Richard B Miller, Humanitarian Intervention, Altruism and the Limits of Casuistry
[31] Carr, p31
[32] Fixdal and Smith, p304

subset: commoncrawl


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