Board of Directors

Thomas G. Apel, Chairman of the Board, is President of Intrepid Ideas Inc., a product development, technology evaluation and business strategy consulting firm for financial services and real estate finance companies. Apel also served as Chief Executive Officer of Adfitech, Inc., a mortgage services company, from 2006 to 2009. .. From 2002 to 2005, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Centex Title and Ancillary Services, and was responsible for management, strategy development and implementation of a highly profitable business unit containing national title, escrow, title insurance and property and casualty insurance operations. 

From 2003 to 2019, Apel was a research affiliate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused on business model taxonomy and IT portfolio strategies His background includes extensive experience in mortgage lending and related real estate lending operations. 

Clifford Allen Bradley Jr. served as executive chairman of Amerisafe, Inc., where he previously served as its CEO from 2003 through 2015. He assumed the Stewart board position after more than two decades in executive positions at Amerisafe, a leading specialty provider of workers’ compensation insurance. He was responsible for managing the company’s underwriting operations beginning in 2000. He also served as general counsel from 1996 to 2000 and as chairman of Amerisafe’s board of directors from 2005 to 2016.

Bradley served as executive vice president of operations for Mor-Tem Systems, an independent insurance agency and claims management firm, from 1994 to 1996. Prior to that position, he was an attorney at law for 18 years and served as a state representative in the Louisiana House of Representatives for two terms from 1984 to 1992.

Bradley served as a director of the National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc. from May 2012 to May 2016. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University.

Robert L. Clarke is a retired partner in the Houston office of Bracewell, LLP, where he founded the law firm's national and international financial services practice. Clarke was appointed as U.S. Comptroller of the Currency by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, and served until 1992 under Presidents Reagan and George Bush, Sr. He has extensive experience in bank ownership and operation, and expert knowledge of banking laws, regulations and supervision, both in the U.S. and internationally.
                                                                                                                                                                                               
Clarke was previously a consultant to the World Bank, and Senior Advisor to the President of the National Bank of Poland. He served as a director and member of the Audit Committee of the boards of Eagle Materials Inc., an NYSE-listed manufacturer of building materials from 2006 to 2016, and as a director of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company from 2008 to 2016. He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Rice University, and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School.

William Corey served as an audit, senior relationship and national pursuit team partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”) from 2002 to 2020. He led the audit practice and served as office managing partner for PwC’s Baltimore office for more than 11 years. Corey currently serves on the LP advisory committee for Squadra Ventures, a venture capital and private equity firm located in Baltimore, as well as on the Board of Advisors of StepStone VC Diversity, L.P. and StepStone VC Global Partners, L.P., both venture capital funds. He also served as a member of the Board of Advisors of the James Madison University College of Business from 2013 to 2025 and most recently, he joined recruiting firm Frederick Fox as a Senior Advisor.

Corey has over 37 years of experience in public accounting, with extensive experience in auditing SEC registrants, financial reporting, complex accounting and internal controls evaluation. Prior to his current position, he served as an audit partner and in other roles at Arthur Andersen LLP beginning in 1982. Corey graduated with honors from James Madison University with a B.B.A. in accounting and finance and a minor in economics in 1982.

Frederick H. Eppinger serves as the chief executive officer of Stewart Information Services Corporation. As CEO, Eppinger is focused on creating opportunities that inspire growth and build off our financial strength. He combines a drive to win with a deep respect for Stewart’s rich history.

Eppinger is an accomplished insurance industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience. He has served as a Stewart director since 2016 and is currently a director and Chairman of the Board at Centene Corporation. Before joining Stewart, he served as president and CEO of The Hanover Insurance Group from 2003 until his retirement in 2016. Under his leadership Hanover transformed into a property/casualty carrier with global reach, more than doubling the company’s employees and revenues. The company was recognized as a “Best Place to Work” by Forbes, Business Insurance and The Boston Globe. Forbes also named Hanover one of “The 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Firms in the U.S.”

From 2001 to 2003, Eppinger was executive vice president of Property and Casualty Field and Service Operations for The Hartford Financial Service Group. From 2000 to 2001, he was executive vice president of industry services, marketing and service operations for ChannelPoint, Inc., a business-to-business technology firm for insurance companies. Eppinger was a senior director and partner at the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. from 1985 to 2000, where he was a leader in the insurance, financial services and health practices, and worked closely with insurance CEOs.

He began his career as an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. He is a graduate of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the College of the Holy Cross. 

Deborah Matz is a member of the board of advisors of Elphi, a startup  company that uses cutting edge technology to streamline the mortgage lending process and a member of the board of advisors of Takara Capital, a financial technology firm in the mortgage space. She recently served as an Advisor to RenoFi, a start-up that has developed a platform which enables financial institutions to make consumer home renovation loans based on the post-renovation value of the homes. In 2009, President Obama appointed her to serve as board chairman for the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). In that role, Matz headed the independent agency that charters, regulates, and supervises federal credit unions and insures all federally insured credit unions.

From 2010 to 2016, Matz served as one of 10 voting members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). FSOC was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to monitor the stability of our nation’s financial system.  She was a director for the Mutual of Omaha bank from 2016to 2019.  Matz worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years in various capacities, including 9 years as an economist with the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. She earned a bachelor’s degree in labor and industrial relations from Cornell University and a master’s degree in political science and government from George Washington University.

Matt served as CEO of Stewart Information Services Corporation from 2011 to 2019. Before that, he was senior vice president for Stewart Information Services Corporation, Stewart Title Company and Stewart Title Guaranty Company. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lutroco, LLC, a private firm targeting purpose-driven strategic opportunities, and serves currently as a director of Stabilis Solutions, Inc., Cornerstone Strategic Value Fund, Inc., and Cornerstone Total Return Fund, Inc.

Morris rejoined Stewart in 2004 to serve as senior vice president of Planning and Development. Prior to rejoining, he served as director for a strategic litigation consulting firm, offering trial and settlement sciences and communications strategy.

Morris graduated from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in organizational behavior and business policy and received his MBA from the University of Texas with a concentration in finance.

Karen Pallotta is president of KRP Advisory Services, LLC, a company she founded in 2012. Prior to that, she spent more than two decades at Fannie Mae, where she served as VP of Marketing and Lender Strategies, Senior VP of Product Acquisition Strategy & Support, and Executive VP, Single Family Mortgage Business. Her responsibilities included managing the firm’s largest business segment, overseeing a $2.8 trillion book of business and the acquisition and securitization of $50 billion in mortgages each month.

Her 30+ years of experience in financial services, risk management and mortgage banking has included leading and managing sales, marketing, credit risk management, product development, transaction management, pricing, strategy development, operational effectiveness, governance, compliance and customer management. Most recently she served on the board of directors of Redwood Trust, Inc.

Pallotta received her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Maryland, College Park and her Bachelor of Arts degree from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

Manolo Sánchez was chairman and CEO of BBVA Compass for 10 years, during which time he served as director of the American Bankers Association, the Institute of International Bankers and the Greater Houston Partnership. He is currently a director at Fannie Mae and Affirm Holdings, Inc.  and teaches disruption in financial services at Rice University’s Jones School of Business.

.In his 27-year banking career, Sánchez has held executive roles in risk management, real estate, correspondent, community, corporate and investment banking. He brings to the Stewart board more than 27 years of experience in the banking industry, working in the U.S., Mexico, France, and Spain. A graduate of Yale University, Sánchez earned master’s degrees in international relations from the London School of Economics and in advanced European economics from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

Helen Vaid was the ‎Chief Executive Officer of Foundry Brands, a brand platform that grows omni-digital brands, from 2021 to 2023. Previously, she was the Global Chief Customer Officer at Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of ‎Yum! Brands, Inc. from 2016 to 2021.

She currently ‎serves on the board of directors of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and is the Senior Entrepreneur-in-Residence of Prosus Group, a global consumer internet group and technology investor. From 2020 to 2023, Vaid was served as ‎director of Groupon, Inc. and from 2023 to 2005, as Senior Advisor and Consulting Director at Mayfair Equity, a private equity firm. 

She has held roles at Walmart.com, a division of Walmart, Inc., including Vice President of ‎Digital Store Operations and Experience, Web & Mobile from 2015 to 2016 and Vice President of Customer Experience, Web & ‎Mobile from 2013 to 2015. Vaid also held several technology-focused roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.‎

With a Bachelor of Arts from Indraprastha College, University of Delhi and a Master of Business Administration from Manchester Business School, Vaid is a seasoned global P&L owner and executive with extensive experience in growing and scaling businesses that operate in both the digital and physical space. She has a passion for customer-centric product management and technology, as well as emerging media and digital engagement strategies that build brands online and transform the customer experience.