The stockholders of Grant Piedmont Bancshares, Inc. unanimously elected Garry Groom, Sr. Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer at its October 2018 stockholder meeting. He is responsible for providing strategic leadership for the company by working with the board of directors and the executive management team to establish long-range goals, strategies, plans and policies.

Previously, Garry served as CFO and chief audit executive of First Oklahoma Bank and First Oklahoma Holdings. He was an organizer of First Oklahoma Holdings, the parent company of First Oklahoma Bank, which has grown from $10 million to over $600 million total assets in just over eight years. He was also an organizer of the de novo ONB bank located in Tulsa, OK, which opened in 2000 and sold in 2007. He served on the board and as executive vice president, chief operations officer, chief financial officer, and senior advisor to the chairman. Garry currently serves on the board of First Oklahoma Holdings, First Oklahoma Bank, and its ALCO, IT and Audit committees.

During his 36-year banking career which includes six banking companies, he has administered five bank M&A transactions with aggregate total assets of $12 billion, and been an organizer and CFO of two de novo financial institutions. He was Chief Information Officer of a $1 billion publicly traded bank, managed five core data processing software conversions or installs, and served as President of Landmark Service Corp., a bank data processing service provider.He has authored policies involving every aspect of bank activities satisfying regulatory scrutiny while consistent with the company’s strategic plan. As CFO, Garry directed more than 27 bank/holding company examinations and 28 annual financial audits. He has managed the audit, accounting, treasury & investment, H/R, IT, credit, and operations departments as well as the regulatory compliance and risk management functions. He has served on the audit, ALCO, IT, H/R, executive loan, and trust committees of both state and national banks, all owned by holding companies subject to  examination and supervision by the Federal Reserve.

Garry is a graduate of Oklahoma State University, earning his bachelor of science degree in finance. With advanced accounting classes taken from Northeastern State, he added an accounting degree and met CPA exam requirements. He is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners holding credentials as a Certified Financial Services Auditor and Certified Fraud Examiner.  He has also been an instructor for the American Institute of Banking and Tulsa Community College, teaching Management Organization, Principles of Accounting, Managerial Finance and Money and Banking economics.

Over his career, Garry has been very active in community service. He was twice selected Optimist of the Year by his peers, and while president of his chapter, the club received its first National Achievement Award. Recently, he was honored when asked to serve a two-year term (2015-2016) on the Fraud and Security Council of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. He is the sole recipient of the 2017 International Association of Certified Fraud Examiners “Outstanding Achievement in Outreach/Community Service” award. He has served as Master of Ceremonies for several fund-raising events and guest speaker at educational seminars and conferences. Garry’s involvement with numerous charitable organizations, such as United Way, YMCA, American Cancer Society, includes chairing their fund-raising campaigns and appointments to their boards.