Executive Leadership Bio’s
John Magness
Chairman
John is a well-established leader in the title insurance and real estate industries, with over three decades of executive experience. Magness has worked, as an executive, for three of the four largest title insurers in the nation – Fidelity National Financial, Stewart Information Services and Old Republic Title. John was an Executive Vice President for FNF as well as Executive Vice President of Alamo Title Company. Prior to FNF, Magness served as Group President at Stewart Title in charge of all U.S.
Direct Title Operations. He also held the role of Chief Corporate Development Officer for Stewart. Prior to Stewart, Magness served as President of Old Republic Title where he led all revenue producing efforts for direct and agency operations, commercial operations, technical service operations, and entities in the title group. John has joined Magnolia Title, as Chairman, to oversee all growth initiatives and support all operations across the platform. He earned his BBA in marketing from the University of Houston.
R. Wayne Norton
President of Texas Operations
Wayne Norton’s career has spanned over 30 years with a primary focus in the financial services field covering local, regional, and national operations. He has held leadership positions in title, mortgage, and property/casualty insurance industries where he had success expanding operations regional footprints into national organizations. Most recently he was Chief Operating Officer for ZOCCAM Technologies who was the leading application relating to payments for real estate transactions.
He is an active member of the Texas Land Title Association where he assists in the advancement of the title industry. He and his wife volunteer their time fundraising for many charitable organizations, The Artist Outreach, ChildrensHealth, and Hope’s Door. They are blessed with 5 children and 7 beautiful grandchildren.
Laurie Cooper
President | Arkansas and Florida Operations
President | Arkansas and Florida Operations
Laurie is a seasoned leader with a remarkable career spanning over 25 years in the title insurance industry. With a comprehensive skill set in business and operations management, Laurie has consistently demonstrated her ability to excel in escrow operations, sales, and delivering exceptional customer satisfaction. Her journey began as a real estate paralegal, and she subsequently served as a Division President of direct operations at Stewart Title for over 26 years.
Laurie’s talent lies in fostering positive relationships and optimizing overall operations, as evidenced by her proven track record and accomplishments in building high-performing teams. As the President of Operations for Arkansas and Florida, she brings a wealth of experience and industry expertise to the table. Laurie’s strategic vision will facilitate expansion and foster collaboration across the Magnolia Title family.
With Laurie’s leadership at the helm, Magnolia Title can look forward to continued growth and success, supported by her unrivaled expertise and dedication to excellence.
Britt Naponic
General Counsel | Executive Vice President
General Counsel | Executive Vice President
Britt is a title industry legal expert with 16+ years of experience managing claims and litigation across the United States. Her expertise is sharply focused on real estate, insurance, and corporate litigation. She has built onboarding processes and corporate cultures within the title industry at multiple major industry leaders. Her extensive experience creating internal, scalable processes serves our family of companies by streamlining back-end tasks to deliver faster results and efficient outcomes, while maintaining precise legal compliance.
Britt received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and earned both her Masters of Business Administration and Doctor of Jurisprudence from The University of Memphis. Britt acts as both Magnolia Title’s Executive Vice President, managing new opportunities for expansion, as well as its General Counsel.
Tom Osborne
Chief Title Counsel
He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law and a BBA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Jeff Harvey
Executive Vice President – Texas Operations
Texas Division Director of Operations
Underwriters
