Peace Through Strength While most Americans were watching fireworks on July 4th, the people of Ukraine were also watching fireworks; however, these fireworks consisted of drones and missiles designed for maximum destruction of civilian infrastructure and to terrorize the Ukrainian population. There is no disputing the fact that the Russian military is no longer advancing…
Read MoreGeorge’s expertise in accounting and auditing ensures that organizations maintain accurate and transparent financial and recordkeeping practices. At the same time, his advisory services empower clients to make informed decisions that drive growth and sustainability..
George’s consulting work also focuses on strategic business planning, strategic technology planning and deployment, fee income strategies, payment systems, process improvement, and reengineering through enabling technologies.
George started his professional career as a banker in Nigeria and later worked as a Bank Examiner with the Texas Department of Banking in Austin, Texas. George has worked as a Consultant in the Office of Comptroller of Currency, a US Treasury Division, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC.
As the Managing Partner of Brickstone & Associates, LLC, George leads a team of seasoned professionals who deliver top-tier auditing and advisory services. Focusing on excellence and integrity, he provides comprehensive solutions tailored to our diverse clientele’s financial and regulatory needs. At Brickstone & Associates, he is fully committed to upholding the highest standards in our field, helping our clients confidently navigate the complexities of today’s financial landscape.
George Oluwaboro is a Certified Public Accountant and received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. George is a Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Mr. Minott worked for fifteen years as wholesale counsel for the asset-based lending group of a large regional bank (Corestates Bank, now part of Wells Fargo). In that capacity, he negotiated and documented complex asset-based transactions. He advised on transactions from commitment letters to funding. He documented financings structured as true leases, conditional sales, secured loans, purchases of receivables, and securitizations. Equipment financed included planes, railroad rolling stock, ships, barges, containers, manufacturing, medical, telephone, computer, and satellites. The transactions required numerous credit enhancement devices such as letters of credit, guarantees, escrow agreements, liquidity agreements, and ratings by credit rating agencies.
Mr. Minott worked as a project manager for the United States Agency for International Development, the agency staffed by US Foreign Service Officers responsible for the US government’s international development projects (USAID), for over twenty years. He designed and managed governance, stabilization, and economic growth programs for USAID in ten countries. He spent almost half his foreign service career managing projects in formerly communist countries, helping them transition from a command to a market economy. The other half of his career was spent managing governance and stabilization projects designed to improve the efficiency and accountability of government institutions, as well as access to credit and basic services.
Mr. Minott’s international work was concentrated in the financial sector, both public and private. Mr. Minott managed multi-year projects in the areas of public finance: tax and customs administration in Georgia, Pakistan, and five Central Asian republics, treasury information management systems and budgeting in Azerbaijan, e-government procurement in Macedonia, and banking supervision in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Projects that Mr. Minott managed to support the development of the private financial sector included support to banker training centers in Georgia and Azerbaijan, the development of accounting standards and accounting training in Georgia and Macedonia, banking supervision projects in Georgia and Azerbaijan, a commercial law project in Georgia, micro-finance projects in Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, and equity funds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mr. Minott is an attorney and retired Foreign Service Officer. Mr. Minott received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD from the University of California at Davis. He also received an MBA with a concentration in accounting and a Master’s in Taxation from Temple University. He currently holds an active law license in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Williams is a financial executive with over 35 years of experience in financial operations involving financial institutions. Her last position was with WeStreet Credit Union, where she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, a $1 billion asset credit union headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her responsibilities included the oversight of the investment portfolio and financial reporting. Additional responsibilities included balance sheet management, liquidity management, enterprise risk management, and insurance. Before joining WeStreet in 2012, Ms. Williams was the Treasurer of Kinecta Federal Credit Union in Manhattan Beach, CA, where she oversaw treasury, asset/liability management, investments, and financial forecasting.
Ms. Williams earned a BBA in Finance and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is a CFA charterholder. Her volunteer roles with CFA include past President of the CFA Society of Oklahoma and Presidents Council Representative (PCR) for the Central and Southwest U.S. in 2016-2020. She has served on the Community Investment Panel for the Tulsa Area United Way and is on the board of Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma.
She lives with her husband in Tulsa, OK, and enjoys hiking, cycling, skiing, and traveling in her spare time.
KEY QUALIFICATIONS:
Mr. Bhargava offers a rich, fourteen-year, highly successful track record in international development work covering feasibility studies, strategy development, technical assistance, and training in nearly fifty countries
Mr. Bhargava has managed multi-year and multimillion-dollar projects and has been an advisor on policy, legal and regulatory reform, financial infrastructure development, and market/institutional strengthening pertaining to commercial banking, capital markets, insurance, pension, and micro-rural finance. He has also advised on SME/entrepreneurship development, trade and investment promotion, competitiveness, credit guarantees, collateral registries, judicial/court reform and education, privatization, and public-private partnerships.
As a senior executive at a major US national bank, he restructured, implemented, and directed modern strategic and financial planning, performance evaluation, and management processes covering all the divisions. He was responsible for lending, directing over eighty loan officers to a vast array of industries and the public sector, and trained hundreds of loan officers. He also oversaw the bank’s entire branch network, introduced many new products and innovative customer services, including ATMs, and established a sales culture.
Mr. Bhargava has also been a thought leader, a university professor, and a public speaker and has been published internationally on business, finance, privatization, trade, and investment, and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Danny Payne, a native Texan, has served over 52 years in the Texas financial industry both in commercial banking and the bank regulatory arena. He has been at the helm as President and CEO of several Texas banks and thrifts (both state and federal) and has an extensive mortgage lending background, both as a mortgage banker and broker. As their Chairman, he was the recipient of the John T. Mahone Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Texas Savings and Community Bankers Association. While serving as a member of the TBA Community Bank Board, he received the Texas Bankers Association’s 2002 Cornerstone Award for outstanding community service through his commercial bank in Austin. He served as the first Texas Savings and Loan Department mortgage broker Licensing Director in 1999 before returning to the private banking sector. He was urged back to public service in 2004 and was sworn in by Governor Rick Perry as Commissioner of the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending (formerly the Texas Savings and Loan Department renamed by the Texas Legislature in 2005) until he retired from public service in December 2007. In that capacity and during his tenure, he was highly instrumental in assisting senior Texas lawmakers in the crafting of the Texas financial fraud and mortgage licensing statutes and amendments, approved charters for a record number of new state savings banks, initiated regulatory examinations/investigations, and commenced the statutory enforcement of Texas mortgage loan originators.
Previously, he served as the Austin Partner with Stone Advisors, L.L.P., a strategic management services, distressed asset, bank acquisition and buy-out firm headquartered in Dallas. In that capacity, and in an affiliated role with Deloitte Touche, he served as an Asset Disposition Professional and a Senior Investigator assisting the FDIC in several receiverships/bank closings across the country. He has also provided several consulting services to various banks, investor groups and attorneys over the years including, but not limited to, bank turnarounds, acquisition due diligence, special asset plan preparation and disposition, senior management evaluation and succession planning, assisting in business and strategic plan preparation, preparation and implementation of all significant bank policies and procedures (including training), risk management assistance, federal and state regulatory liaison, special board of directors and executive management consultant, special projects and numerous expert testimony assignments.
He served on TrustTexas Bank’s board from 2008 to 2009. From 2011 to 2012 he served the Board of Directors of Coronado First Bank located in Coronado, California (Chairman of ALCO) and the Board of Directors of a Scottsdale, Arizona commercial bank. In November 2011, having been vetted by the FDIC and Comptroller of Currency, he served as acting President/CEO for a Phoenix, Arizona bank until the bank could be ultimately sold. In early 2012, he accepted a Regulatory Supervisory Agent assignment in a West Texas bank on behalf of banking regulators. In 2013-14, he served as a regulatory Compliance Assurance Supervisor to a global bank card issuer client reporting directly to the Board and the FDIC. He presently serves as Advisory Director to Blackguard, Inc.
He attended Texas Tech University and served on the Advisory Board of its School of Community Bank Management. With his penchant for furthering financial literacy and industry education, he has conducted numerous seminars, symposiums, workshops and instructed courses on subjects including real estate financing, first time home buying, banking principles, regulatory and Texas mortgage broker licensing, mortgage fraud, best practices in banking, Ethics in Banking, commercial lending and loan qualifying/underwriting. He was one of the first Texas banking industry instructors of basic consumer financial matters in the “Money Smart” educational initiative sponsored by the FDIC. Throughout his banking tenure, he has been an instructor for the American Institute of Banking, Mortgage Bankers Association, Bank Administration Institute, the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University, and other consumer and financial industry educational providers. He remains active in the public speaking arena and has been a guest and featured speaker at various financial and lending trade association functions, conventions, special interest groups, state commissions/agencies, and consumer groups to address a wide spectrum of regulatory, consumer finance, and banking issues over his career. In 2018, he accepted an invitation to join the faculty at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University instructing Ethics in Banking. In 2021, he joined the team at Opportunity Group, LLC, international financial industry and business consulting firm with offices in the DFW area as well as Ukraine.
Ms. Zorka is one of the founders of Opportunity Group and serves as the firm’s President. She is a Certified Public Accountant, and currently manages all financial and contractual matters related to the firm’s clients.
She has been instrumental in integrating the home office and field office staff on reporting procedures for better management and integration of project costs and accounting. She has extensive experience in public accounting, finance, accounting and internal audit functions.
Her expertise involves dealing with GAAP, IFRS, and SOX compliance issues. She has extensive experience in evaluating major business processes and controls and assisting public and private companies with implementing process improvements and best practices. She has designed and performed audit programs and procedures on various financial, compliance, operational, and IT audits. She has created analytical tools for banks and non-bank financial institutions. These analytical reports were designed to illustrate the impact of management decisions on a bank’s performance.
These reports were designed to evaluate capital adequacy, asset quality, management performance, minimum liquidity requirements, and the quality of earnings. These reports assist regulatory staff and bank management perform a better analysis of an institution’s financial condition.
Ms. Zorka has expertise in preparing proforma financial statements and budgets. She holds a Master of Professional Accountancy degree and a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Foreign Languages.
Mr. Stroud is the founder of Opportunity Group and currently serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer in its work involving international banking development programs, fraud investigations, and expert witness services. He began his regulatory career in the early 1980s with the Comptroller of the Currency. He continued his regulatory work with the Federal Home Loan Bank – Dallas, which later became the Office of Thrift Supervision.
His regulatory career in the financial sector has covered three significant periods, including:
Each of these periods required unique technical skills and the ability to manage and maneuver through highly complex cultural and political environments. During his various international assignments, Mr. Stroud has worked directly with senior elected government officials, including heads of state, officials at the ministerial level, court-appointed officials, and other international donor senior officials in the drafting and implementing of various laws and regulations for the financial sector. He has designed and implemented turnaround strategies for numerous state-owned businesses, including commercial banks, that ended successfully with private capital injections. These strategies resulted in saving the financial sector tens of millions of dollars.
During his career, he has served in the following capacities:
1) A federally appointed conservator for thirteen financial institutions that were in financial distress;
2) A court-appointed special deputy receiver for seven insurance companies,
3) Manager of a portfolio of distressed assets on behalf of the Resolution Trust Corporation and
4) Team leader on several multi-year, multi-million-dollar international development programs designed to improve the transparency and efficiency of the host country’s financial sector.
He is a Certified Fraud Examiner and has served as an expert witness on cases involving fiduciary responsibilities, conflicts of interest, and fraud-related issues, including misapplication of assets, documentation of mortgages, evaluating non-performing and impaired assets, and corporate governance failures. One of the cases involved the largest bank failure in the United States.
Mr. Stroud has provided written and oral testimony to the banking committees in both the U.S. House and Senate. He possesses a BBA with an emphasis in finance and economics and an MBA in finance/banking.
Gary Gegenheimer is a senior financial legislative and regulatory advisor. An alumnus of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and its predecessor agency, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), he has over 40 years of experience in financial institution regulation and supervision. Since 1995, he has participated in international consulting assignments in more than 25 countries, advising central banks and other financial regulatory authorities in emerging market countries in all parts of the world on projects sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Canadian International Development Agency. From 1983 to 1995, during the U.S. savings and loan crisis, he was an attorney with the OTS in Washington D.C. and Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on enforcement and problem bank issues.
Holder of an advanced legal degree in international banking and financial law from Boston University School of Law, Gary works closely with central bank officials and financial sector supervisors, reviewing banking and insurance laws, regulations, and policies and recommending amendments to conform to international standards and best practices, particularly the Basel Core Principles and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-money laundering recommendations. He was instrumental in the legislative process that resulted in new banking laws or amendments to existing laws in many countries in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He also assists in corporate governance (both in governmental entities and regulated financial institutions), judicial reform, general commercial law, and non-bank financial institutions. He has authored many publications on bank supervision in transition economies in leading academic and practice-oriented legal journals and designs and delivers training programs for lawyers and financial supervisors.
During his U.S. Government career, he served as a senior attorney (District Counsel, Assistant Regional Counsel, and later senior enforcement attorney) for the OTS’ Northeast Region, working from the Boston, Massachusetts office from 1990 to 1995. He concentrated on problem institutions, emphasizing enforcement actions and resolution of failed institutions.
Gary served in the agency’s headquarters office in Washington, D.C., from 1983 to 1990. As an attorney in the Enforcement Division, he conducted complex investigations and litigation in U.S. district courts and administrative proceedings, mainly in cases entailing financial fraud and insider abuse. He was the principal draftsman of the agency’s Rules of Practice and Procedure for administrative proceedings and 1985 amendments to its regulation on lending limits.
In addition to his LL.M degree from Boston University, Gary holds a J.D. degree from the University of Maine School of Law, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and a B.A. in social sciences (history and political science) from Westfield State College (now Westfield State University) in Massachusetts.
