AC/DC Key Concerns for Commercial Energy Transactions
Title Tenets: CRE Webinar
March 2025
Understanding day-to-day electrical currents – the basic principles of AC/DC - is relatively straightforward. Commercial energy transactions, however, are an exceedingly complex and nuanced undertaking. Minerals, non-imputation, mechanic’s liens, and crossings all have the potential to directly impact the timelines and successful closing of complex energy transactions. Join leading commercial title insurance experts of the Stewart Title Energy and Infrastructure Group as they cover diverse areas of concern when completing these real estate transactions during this free webinar.
Title Tenets is a commercial real estate webinar series hosted by Stewart Title National Commercial Services. These events are an opportunity for commercial real estate professionals to receive a deep dive into some of the industry’s most complex and hot topics and transaction types from the underwriter perspective. Learn more about the series at stewart.com/cre-webinar.
Stewart Title Energy and Infrastructure Group Presenters:
Matt Skalka, Vice President
Matt Lichtenauer, Underwriting Counsel
Diane Nesbit, Underwriter/Project Manager
Read their bios here.
NCS Speakers
Matt Skalka
Vice President, Stewart Title Energy and Infrastructure Group
Matt Skalka currently serves as Vice President and Head of Stewart Title’s National Commercial Services office in Houston. He also leads Stewart Title’s Energy and Infrastructure Group. Prior to rejoining Stewart, Matt started Thomas Title and Escrow’s Energy Services group, which Stewart acquired.
Prior to joining Thomas Title, Matt served as Associate Senior Underwriting Counsel in Stewart Title’s Houston National Commercial Services office, where he specialized in commercial, energy, industrial and international projects. He routinely acted as lead underwriting counsel providing guidance on affirmative coverages, endorsements and curative matters concerning complex, high-liability commercial transactions. Matt spends considerable time, and has developed a deep skill set, underwriting industrial, retail, multi-family, office, cell tower, utility scale renewable energy projects (solar/wind), mining operations, natural gas plants and other energy related infrastructure facilities throughout the U.S. Before returning to Houston, he spent 18 months in London underwriting commercial transactions throughout Europe. Matt also has experience as claims counsel and in Stewart’s corporate legal department.
Having grown up in the title insurance business in Houston, Matt is uniquely positioned to lead Stewart’s growth in the energy capital of the world.
Matt Lichtenauer
Underwriting Counsel, Stewart Title Energy and Infrastructure Group
Matt Lichtenauer currently serves in the role of Underwriting Counsel for the Stewart TitleEnergy and Infrastructure Group, where he additionally acts as team lead for one of the Group’s central teams. The scope of his primary focus extends in part to large utility scale renewable projects, including solar projects, wind farms, and battery sites, among other similarly scaled projects. With over a decade of experience in the title field, throughout his career Matt has maintained a particular focus on mineral development and related issues. Previous to his tenure with Stewart Title, he fulfilled the role of in-house counsel for an international oil and gas exploration company.
Diane Nesbit
Underwriter/Project Manager, Stewart Title Energy and Infrastructure Group
Diane Nesbit acts as an Underwriter and Project Manager with the Stewart Title Energy and Infrastructure Group. Over the course of her career spanning several decades, Diane has specialized in high-liability commercial and energy/renewables transactions. As technologies have emerged, been further developed and become increasingly complicated, in her role Diane has effectively managed a diverse classification of projects and kept pace with the constant evolution of the renewables industry. As both an underwriter and a project manager, her centers of specialization and expertise have progressively afforded her valuable insights into the typical and atypical obstacles that can be overcome in order to ensure the timely closing of simple or complex energy and infrastructure transactions.
