John Apostol joined North American Title and founding partners Richard Parsons and Michael Strat in 1988. As chief operations officer, he helped build the fledgling partnership into a 100-employee enterprise in less than five years.
In 2000, North American Title merged with First American Title, with Apostol becoming the Southeast Michigan Division’s COO and general counsel. In his four years with the First American, he figured prominently on a team responsible for overhauling First American’s systems, processes and customer service, and increasing the company’s volume from 2,000 orders per month to more than 10,000 orders per month. In addition, he helped turn First American Title’s $2 million annual losses into $8.4 million annual profit, and increased company efficiency from 24 orders per person per month to 66 orders per person per month.
Apostol departed First American Title in 2004, looking to pursue new professional opportunities. In 2005, he again joined North American Title founding partners, Parsons and Strat — along with First American Title colleagues Janice Chaney and Robert Considine — to establish Vanguard Title.
Apostol earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Detroit Law School, with a concentration in real estate law.
Janice Chaney joined North American Title in 1996, where she met future partners Michael Strat, John Apostol, Richard Parsons and Robert Considine. Following North American Title’s merger with First American Title in 2000, she served as operations manager, working with a team responsible for overhauling First American’s systems, processes and customer service, and increasing the company’s volume from 2,000 orders per month to more than 10,000 orders per month as well as increasing company efficiency from 24 orders per person per month to 66 orders per person per month.
Chaney has more than 15 years experience in the residential real estate industry, in both the title business and the mortgage business. She began her mortgage career with Fidelity Bank in 1987, joining the company as a bank teller, advancing to the position of loan processor/officer, and later becoming assistant mortgage department manager in 1994.
Christian Felton began his career in the real estate services industry in 1995 when he joined Canton, Michigan based Advanced Support & Knowledge Services (A.S.K.), a public record investigative research corporation. Between 1995 and 2000, he was responsible for increasing A.S.K.'s service area from 10 Michigan counties to 5 states and dramatically expanding field agent and contractor recruiting. Following his promotion to Vice President of Business Development in 2001, Chris continued to oversee the sales team, developed new products, improved customer service, and expanded the client base to include the nation’s largest title insurance underwriters. In 2004 he accepted a position with the Fidelity National Title Insurance Company as VP - Director of Commercial Marketing, where he was responsible for the sales and marketing efforts for their national title service office, specializing in large commercial transactions, and offering premium closing and escrow services to a highly sophisticated client base.
Chris Felton joined Vanguard Title in the fall of 2005 as Vice President of Business Development and is charged with all facets of sales and marketing efforts for the organization.
Chris earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Michigan University.
Michael Strat co-founded North American Title with Richard Parsons in 1987 and were joined one year later by new partner John Apostol. The three-man operation rapidly grew a 100-employee enterprise in less than five years by successfully developing new, more efficient title processing systems. The company dramatically gained market share over time by impressing regional Lenders, Realtors and Credit Unions with an unparalled reputation for superior customer service and technological efficiency and would eventually catch the attention of the nation’s largest title insurance provider, First American Title.
In 2000, North American Title merged with First American, and Strat became the new entity’s President of the Southeast Michigan Division. In his four years with First American, he oversaw a team responsible for overhauling First American’s systems, processes and customer service, and increasing the company’s volume from 2,000 orders per month to more than 10,000 orders per month. In addition, he helped turn First American Title’s $2 million annual losses into $8.4 million annual profit, and increased company efficiency from 24 orders per person per month to 66 orders per person per month.
Strat departed First American Title in 2003, looking to pursue new professional opportunities. In 2005, he again joined North American Title founding partners, Parsons and Apostol — along with First American Title colleagues Janice Chaney and Robert Considine — to establish Vanguard Title.
