Barbara McDugald is an attorney, business executive and industrial engineer with over 25 years of legal and business experience in financial services, M&A, distressed businesses, real estate, and manufacturing. Barbara’s legal and business expertise spans a wide range, including strategic planning, financing, operations, acquisitions, sales and marketing. She has extensive experience in virtually all aspects of corporate and commercial law, real estate, multiple levels of business finance, and complex litigation management. Barbara was also the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of a highly successful distribution business which she grew and sold.

As a member of the Executive Team and Vice President and General Counsel of Security Title Agency, Inc. – a direct operation of Fidelity National Financial, Inc., the largest provider of title insurance and related products in the world – Barbara participates in strategic planning and operational oversight of all aspects of the company’s business. She manages all legal issues facing the company, with emphasis in insurance claims and litigation management. She is responsible for regulatory compliance of this highly-regulated business and is experienced with SOX compliance.

Barbara has comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of commercial lending and corporate finance through her tenure as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of FINOVA Capital Corporation, a former NYSE company, previously a subsidiary of The Greyhound Dial Corporation. This middle-market commercial niche lender concentrated on corporate finance and finance of aircraft and railroad rolling stock, ships, radio and television stations, outdoor advertisers, timeshare receivables, medical receivables, and real estate. She managed FINOVA’s litigation in all 50 states, Canada, the U.K., France and Egypt and had P&L responsibility for the $10M Litigation Department. Barbara developed and supervised implementation of workout and turnaround plans for the company’s borrowers, including an innovative strategy to settle favorably a $150M class action using a $110M bankruptcy and multi-district litigation. She was a member of the credit committee and advised the company on commercial finance transactions and regulatory compliance. Barbara also conducted due diligence in connection with corporate acquisitions.

Barbara’s financial services sector experience also includes representation of banks, commercial lenders, real estate developers, and construction companies in transactions, zoning matters and regulatory compliance during her private law practice.

Barbara gained broad management and operations experience as a successful entrepreneur. As one of the founders, she started and operated a distribution business for a full-line soda, snack and food vending business, building it into one of the largest in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Responsible for sales and marketing, she tripled gross revenues and quadrupled net profit in 2 years and received the west coast regional award for increased sales of Diet Coke before successfully selling the business.

Barbara has manufacturing and supply chain experience as an Industrial Engineer for both Belden Corporation and International Harvester Co. She managed a “just in time” dock facility at IH’s state-of-the-art truck assembly plant, restoring functionality of the dock significantly ahead of projections after the dock was paralyzed by the Ohio blizzard of 1978. Barbara developed and implemented workflow and assembly line plans for both companies. She also worked with unions as a member of management.

She has served on a number of boards, including Land Title Association of Arizona (Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President and President), Ballet Arizona – 2004 Co-Chair of Nutcracker Angel annual fundraiser, Women at the Top (Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President), Beatitudes Age Link, North Central Phoenix Homeowners Association (Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President), Faith Lutheran Preschool (President), Beatitudes Campus of Care, Beatitudes Center D.O.A.R., Phoenix Surface Transportation Advisory Board, and the Phoenix Art Museum.

Barbara holds a Juris Doctor (with honors and Order of the Coif) from The Ohio State University College of Law and a B.A., majoring in Biology, from Earlham College. She has completed advanced training at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona and completed the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank’s online course Insights for Bank Directors.

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