Stellar Bancorp Inc., the holding company of Houston-based Stellar Bank, announced the election of Cynthia Dopjera to the board of directors of the company. This election as a class II director fills an existing vacancy. Stellar Bancorp has a 14-member board, which consists of 11 independent directors. Dopjera currently serves on the Stellar Bank board and chairs the audit committee. She served on the board of Allegiance Bank beginning in 2019, prior to its merger with CommunityBank of Texas NA and the formation of Stellar Bank.

“[Dopjera] brings a range of skills, experience and perspective that will benefit the company and its goals going forward,” says Steve Retzloff, executive chairman. “With her extensive experience in the financial services industry as a banker, auditor and consultant, and her familiarity with the bank and its marketplaces, the input she provides will be invaluable to our board of directors.”

Dopjera spent the first half of her career holding various operational and executive leadership roles for community banks, as well as large regional banks. In 2000, she joined the Houston-based public accounting firm of Harper & Pearson Co. PC, for which she served as shareholder, board chair and practice leader for the firm’s banking and financial institutions practice. The firm’s services included financial statement audit, tax preparation, regulatory compliance, loan and asset quality review, model validations, interest rate risk assessments and the design and implementation of internal controls over financial reporting for large financial institutions and publicly traded institutions regulated under FDICIA and Sarbanes-Oxley. Dopjera retired from Harper & Pearson Co. in 2018.

Stellar Bank serves Houston, Dallas, Beaumont and surrounding communities in Texas.