About Us
About Opportunity Group
Opportunity Group is headquartered in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas with an office in Kyiv, Ukraine. The company was founded in 2007 in response to the demands of public and private financial institutions to address the regulatory and asset management problems of troubled financial institutions. The firm is actively engaged in the international development of the real estate and financial services industry in both the private and public sector.
Today, Opportunity Group is building upon the extensive experience of its principals in real estate, banking and accounting.
As you review our accomplishments, you will notice that each member of our staff has significant international and domestic industry experience which incorporates diverse and different views. Our management philosophy includes subject matter expertise which allows us to meet the needs of our clients. As an example, we have lived and worked in the same environments that many of our clients encounter every day. This allows us to bring a unique and relevant perspective to each assignment. What sets us apart from our competitors is that our principals have the technical expertise to do the work.
Our Team
You will find a wealth of individual and combined experience at Opportunity Group. Our staff consists of experienced professionals that our clients feel comfortable talking with about the complex issues they face every day. Our primary goal is for our clients to be successful. We operate with a minimum bureaucracy, which we believe translates into a better relationship with our clients. We provide a comfortable venue of honest dialogue that leads to positive results.
Terry L. Stroud – Founder – Chief Executive Officer
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:
- the “oil and gas” industry collapse of the early 1980s;
- the “Savings and Loans” crisis from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, and
- the fall of the Berlin Wall which precipitated the demise of the former Soviet Union and other communist countries.
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.
Listen to Terry Stroud on The Round Table Group podcast.
Yulia Zorka – President
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.
C. Danny Payne – Chief Technical Officer
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.
GEORGE OLUWABORO, CPA, CGMA – Accounting and Auditing
George’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.
Geoffrey Minott – Commercial Banking Transactions
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.
Susan M. Williams, CFA – Bank Operations
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 all the financial reporting systems. 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.