AmTrust Title Insurance expands Energy Division

New York, NY AmTrust Title Insurance has expanded its Energy Team within its National Commercial Division. The industry leading team will facilitate title insurance transactions for renewable and conventional energy projects, including refineries, LNG facilities and wind and solar farms, along with various other energy related transactions, accounting for some of the largest insured real estate matters in the U.S. Lou Canaras and nine others join AmTrust Title in Houston, expanding not only the company’s Energy Division but adding an average of 20 years of general title insurance underwriting and production experience in the area and surrounding states.

“This extremely knowledgeable and experienced team was added to address some of the most complicated transactions in the real estate industry, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake per transaction. A typical energy project presents complex underwriting issues that can involve thousands of acres with acquisition, easement, mineral estate, access, development and project finance challenges. There is no room for error in the transaction process,” said Jason Gordon, president of AmTrust Title Insurance Co., a subsidiary of AmTrust Financial. 

“This team has successfully insured hundreds of these transactions.”

Canaras will serve as SVP and underwriter for the Energy Division, responsible for overseeing the team of underwriting, sales and production specialists, including Lynn Babineaux with whom he has worked with for 25 plus years. Over his career, Canaras has gained an unparalleled expertise in underwriting energy related transactions which has allowed him to work with notable industry leaders and successfully insure numerous national and international energy facilities. Prior to joining AmTrust, he served as senior vice president, senior underwriter and director at another major title underwriter.

Mellissa Atle will serve as vice president of the Energy Division and will oversee the work of six dedicated energy project coordinators. Atle has over nine years of experience in the title industry managing multi-million dollar transactions involving wind, solar, LNG, transmission lines, and other energy-related sectors. Most recently she served as the energy closing supervisor at Canaras’ former company.

Rob Concepcion will serve as vice president, business development, Energy Division. Concepcion relies on his strong renewable energy development background when helping clients get through the many stages of project development. His recent roles included VP business development-renewables for another underwriter and real estate supervisor for both Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and EGPNA.

Steven Napolitano, president of First Nationwide Title Agency, a subsidiary of AmTrust Financial, said, “Lou’s ability to understand and insure complex transactions is well known throughout the energy industry. Mellissa and Rob have led remarkably successful careers in the energy space, overseeing operations and sales under Lou and forging one of the largest energy focused groups in the country.”

Randy Elkins, executive vice president of First Nationwide Title Agency’s Texas operations said, “We have been searching for additional expertise and bandwidth to specifically address our growing client list of energy companies, developers, lenders and tax equity purchasers.” Citing the activity in both conventional and renewable energy projects and their unique needs for title insurance coverage, Elkins said, “We’ve added the most respected experts in the space.”