Doug Forsyth of Liberty Title Agency is at the top of his game

There's a good reason Brian Madden, president and co-founder of Liberty Title Agency, is proud to have his new executive vice president Doug Forsyth on board. "In the entire title industry in the country," Madden says, "there's probably a dozen or so people whose contacts are so significant that they themselves represent a market share. He represents a market share himself in the New York and national markets." The 35 year-old Forsyth, who makes his home in Colts Neck, N.J. with his wife Heather and their three children, joined Liberty in February. Madden got to know Forsyth while he was at LandAmerica, where he racked up the company's prestigious "Achiever's Circle' awards five years in a row. "I've been on deals with him," Madden says, "and I always liked the way he worked with his clients." Madden was right to be impressed. "He has an impeccable reputation," he said. "So for years I've been after him to join us." "Brian is a dynamic guy," saidForsyth, who notes that once the time came to make a switch to Liberty, he was ready. "When it became an option for me to be employed here, it was a very short discussion. I felt that this was the organization that would best be able to service my clients in a professional and timely manner." And if there's one thing Forsyth appreciates, it's being part of a good team. He was the captain of his football team at Red Bank Regional High School in New Jersey and played starting strong safety on his varsity team at Susquehanna University. "I was the shortest, slowest and only non-All American among the four defensive backs," he recalls. "But I was the guy who called the defenses. I like to feel I was in the right position to make plays.""Do not underestimate that man!" says Madden today. "His tenacity is deceptive—there's no doubt!" Whether handling a $2 billion REIT merger with 200 properties in several states, or more straight-forward commercial real estate transactions, Forsyth is at the top of his game. And his father, a retired municipal bonds salesman, couldn't be more pleased. "I was lucky enough to find the clients I could get along with," said Jim Forsyth. "Doug went for the people who had the best potential. And he's been very successful, I think, because of the competitiveness he learned from football." "My father always said I'd never be a great salesman," Forsyth recalls with a laugh, sitting in his Manhattan office overlooking Second Ave. "He didn't think I would react well to having a client go ballistic." But that coping skill is one of his strengths. "I was at the Achiever's Circle awards last year when a client called because one of the attorneys had set him off. For the next 20 minutes he just screamed. I just sat there and listened to him vent. And when he was done, I said I'd make a few calls and we'll make this right. I think I said maybe five words! And in the end everything worked out to the benefit of the client." But knowing how to listen and how to act are keys to Forsyth's success. "I like to know what's going on," he says. "If I'm not involved in the day-to-day scrum, then I'm not representing my client to the fullest." One time, the day before closing on an office building on a large piece of property in New Jersey, he learned that no one had done a survey. The lender required survey coverage, and the clients turned to Forsyth and said that since they were going into the transaction "blind," too, he recalls, they also wanted survey coverage. "Every one of my guys said, 'You're nuts—you can't give them survey coverage!' So I went all the way up the line of the company." As the deadline loomed, Forsyth was able to negotiate a compromise with the borrower, the lender and the underwriter to get them what they wanted and close the deal. When an updated survey was completed, the perceived risk at the closing turned out to be exactly as Forsyth had predicted and all parties were duly satisfied. Another time required Forsyth to go to the top of his company to discuss why his local management wanted to pull out of a transaction involving another title insurance company— all while coping with his wife's suddenly having to have emergency gall bladder surgery. The disagreement stemmed from a pricing issue in a heavily regulated state. While Forsyth did not disagree with his local management's decision, he felt obligated to run it up the flag pole because simply walking away from the deal would have sent an adverse message to his client. So while heading to the hospital, he was trying to coordinate phone calls with the underwriter and the client, while reassuring his two daughters, Nolan and Skyler (his son James had yet to be born) that their mom would be okay. "I advised the client that upon consultation with the very top of my company, we would have to pass because of the pricing structure, and we apologized for any inconvenience. I said I'd fought the fight but at the end of the day we were unwilling to participate in the transaction as it was currently priced. Then I turned my cell phone off—not for long, trust me—and saw my wife." After her operation, he had a message from his senior underwriting counsel in New York. The message confused him at first because the underwriter had said, "'You won!' " Subsequently, he learned that the client's general counsel had said that "if Doug Forsyth is unwilling to do this, then there may be something un-kosher with it.' " And not only that, he said the client wanted to go with the rate Forsyth was proposing and give his title insurance company the larger percentage of the deal for looking out for his interests. "I've done deals where other title companies have been in the lead," he recalls, "and my clients have come in and said, 'We'll only fund through Doug Forsyth's office.' I guess they trust me. That's how I read it—and that's my hope. And that has followed me here to Liberty."