Meet VantageScore's Leadership
Silvio Tavares is President and Chief Executive Officer of VantageScore. During his tenure, Mr. Tavares secured the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s acceptance of VantageScore 4.0 for use in underwriting mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He has substantially expanded the utilization of VantageScore across the financial services industry, with eight of the 10 largest banks in the United States and more than 3,400 other banks and financial technology firms adopting VantageScore’s credit scoring and modeling tools.
Mr. Tavares is an experienced CEO, innovator and thought leader in the data analytics industry. He was the founding CEO, and serves as the current Chairman, of the Digital Commerce Alliance (DCA), a leading financial data standards trade association. Prior to founding the DCA, Mr. Tavares served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Visa’s data analytics business, enabling banks and merchants to increase revenues and reduce fraud by using the latest data-driven neural networks. Earlier in his career, he led the information products business for Fiserv/First Data. In that role, he pioneered SpendTrend™, a leading macro-economic spending index based on card payment transactions.
Mr. Tavares is also a sought-after public company board director. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CSG, a NASDAQ-listed company that provides digital engagement and payment services to leading cable companies and mobile operators. Previously, he served as Chairman of the Audit Committee and Board Director for CPI, a NASDAQ-listed provider of secure payment cards.
Mr. Tavares is an inventor or co-inventor of more than 16 issued patents in data analytics and financial data. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University, a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Tufts University.
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Rikard Bandebo is Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Economist at VantageScore, the fastest growing credit scoring company in the U.S.
Dr. Rikard Bandebo has spent the last 20 years as a product leader and general manager, working at the cross-section of financial services and quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Throughout his career, he has paired his expertise in data analytics with meaningful insights that help drive product innovation and expand market share.
Prior to his current role, Dr. Bandebo served as VantageScore’s Chief Product Officer, leading the data science and technology teams. In this role, he spearheaded the development of the VantageScore 4plus and VantageScore 5.0 credit score models. Prior to VantageScore, he was the Chief Product Officer at the location data company Unacast, where he helped develop a product-driven focus during a period of exciting growth. At Clarivate (a former Thomson Reuters division), he led the product and strategy functions for MarkMonitor, leading the company’s divestiture and transition to Investcorp. Bandebo has also served in leadership roles at other data analytics companies, including Bersin by Deloitte; 7Park Data (a Vista Equity Partners company); and real estate analytics company Markerr.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Bandebo led the Analytics and Advisory teams at First Data (now a Fiserv company) where he shared insights on the consumer, financial services, retail and small business sectors as Chief Economist.
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As Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, Susan Fahy leads all digital channels across VantageScore’s organization and product offerings. This includes ideating digital tools for stakeholders and managing digital engagement for VantageScore’s owned and operated digital channels, including social and interactive media, as well as managing the company’s digital community.
An acknowledged leader in data product innovation, Ms. Fahy has more than 25 years of experience in digital financial services, analytics and fintech. She most recently led analytics capabilities at Bank of America and Fiserv. Prior to Fiserv, Ms. Fahy was Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Analytics at Citibank and Vice President of Product at First Data (acquired by Fiserv).
At Citibank and First Data, Ms. Fahy led teams that transformed analytics, defined insights, and drove innovation. Ms. Fahy launched several of First Data’s market-leading digital data products, including the pioneering SpendTrendTM index. Ms. Fahy received her Master of Business Administration from Dowling College and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management at Carlow College.
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Anthony Hutchinson is the Executive Vice President and Head of Public Affairs at VantageScore. He brings nearly 30 years’ experience and a wealth of knowledge about the inner workings of Congress and the executive branch, as well as a deep understanding of the housing industry, to his current position. He has helped shape public policies critical to the housing industry, including the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Law and the subsequent Qualified Mortgage (QM) and Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) rulings, which ensured that homeownership remains affordable and accessible for all qualified homebuyers.
Prior to joining VantageScore, Mr. Hutchinson was Director of Government and Industry Relations at Freddie Mac, overseeing the enterprise’s relationships with industry partners including the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers Association and Mortgage Bankers Association. He liaised with these organizations to gain understanding of their business needs and the impact of Freddie Mac policies on their respective members. Intelligence gathered and shared was used to cultivate better industry partnerships and improve housing finance experiences for the consumer.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Hutchinson represented the views of more than one million REALTORS® as the Senior Policy Representative for Financial Services for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), the nation’s largest professional trade association, for more than five years. Before that, he served in several positions at Fannie Mae for more than 10 years, including providing market intelligence for Fannie Mae’s partnership offices, managing the emerging markets effort in the Baltimore MSA, product development, and manufactured housing portfolio. In addition, Mr. Hutchinson was a Customer Account Manager (CAM) for the mortgage lenders’ cooperative organizations.
He began his career in the housing industry at the National Association of REALTORS® as a Senior Market Researcher, part of the research and economics group. Here he developed a keen understanding of how research and data impact public policy.
Mr. Hutchinson earned a Bachelor of Science in geography from the Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from the University of Maryland, Global Campus.
Marisol is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, responsible for shaping financial strategy and overseeing key financial operations, including planning and analysis, accounting, tax reporting, financial systems, and audits. A seasoned executive with more than 20 years of financial leadership, she delivers expertise gained across diverse financial functions.
Prior to becoming CFO, Ms. McCoy built her career in public accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers and later transitioned into the software industry. She held senior finance leadership roles at several high-growth public technology companies, where she led financial operations, M&A activities, investor relations, and global expansion efforts. She played a pivotal role in scaling businesses, implementing robust financial systems, and driving strategic decision-making that enhanced profitability and sustained growth.
Ms. McCoy earned a Bachelor of Science in Business with a major in Accounting from California State University, East Bay, and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Dr. Andrada I. Pacheco is the Executive Vice President and Chief Data Scientist at VantageScore. With more than 20 years of experience in the data science field, Dr. Pacheco utilizes her skills in data analysis, statistical modeling, quantitative research, and econometric methods to build and refine the VantageScore credit scoring models. She leads the company’s data science team in their research, development and maintenance of credit scoring models and other analytics solutions and products.
Dr. Pacheco has held roles as Senior Manager of Research and Development at ACNielsen and Senior Portfolio Analyst at GE Capital. Dr. Pacheco received a Ph.D. in Environmental Economics and an M.S. degree in Statistics from the University of Rhode Island, where she also served as an instructor.
Kimberly Schmid is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of VantageScore. She is responsible for all legal and compliance matters at the company.
Before joining VantageScore, Ms. Schmid served for several years at Visa, most recently as Senior Managing Counsel for Global Product, Technology and Business Solutions, a role in which she provided strategic direction and solution-oriented legal advice to core and emerging cross-functional product teams. Prior to her role at Visa, Ms. Schmid served as Vice President, Regulatory Counsel for Netspend Corporation. Ms. Schmid began her legal career at King & Spalding LLP as an associate in financial restructuring and later served as an attorney in the National Security Division at the United States Department of Justice.
Ms. Schmid earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Texas at Austin.
Olayinka Fadahunsi is Senior Vice President and Head of Communications for VantageScore. Mr. Fadahunsi leads the effort to protect and promote the company’s corporate reputation, employee engagement, executive visibility, media relations and product communications initiatives, advancing the company’s mission to deliver the most predictive, innovative, and inclusive tri-bureau models and credit attributes to consumers and institutions.
Prior to joining VantageScore, Mr. Fadahunsi was Global Head of Communications for S&P Global, where he oversaw an international team of communicators responsible for internal, external, executive, corporate and business line communications. He was a member of the leadership team that completed S&P Global’s $140 billion merger with information services provider IHS Markit in 2022.
Mr. Fadahunsi previously held communications leadership roles at Deutsche Bank, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, and the Office of the New York State Comptroller, chief fiscal officer and steward of the $273 billion New York Common Retirement Fund. He has more than two decades of experience in the financial communications, information services and data analytics sectors, and began his career as a business journalist at various publications in New York City.
Mr. Fadahunsi is a member of the advisory board of a social enterprise investing in sustainable agriculture in Haiti. He also serves on the research committee of a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the built and natural environments in West Africa. He is a graduate of the City University of New York and received further training through the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services corporate credit analysis and S&P Global executive leadership development programs
Atif Mirza is Senior Vice President of Digital at VantageScore. He is responsible for the creation, production, and commercialization of VantageScore’s cutting-edge digital tools, including Inclusion360®, CreditGauge™, RiskRatio® and MarketGain®. These tools and resources are designed to deliver key insights into credit risk and U.S. consumer credit health. The suite of digital tools serves as a crucial asset for lenders, fintechs and capital market participants to ensure timely access to critical insights and data. The insights and data published through the digital tools are regularly quoted and published by top-tier media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, and Yahoo Finance.
Mr. Mirza has more than 20 years of experience leading data strategy and analytics teams at Goldman Sachs, Citi, and other major financial services organizations.
Jeff Richardson leads marketing for VantageScore and in that role he educates stakeholders about the value of VantageScore’s Jeff Richardson leads marketing for VantageScore, and in that role he educates stakeholders about the value of VantageScore’s inclusive and highly predictive credit-scoring models. He previously hosted “THE SCORE” Podcast, where he interviewed industry innovators and thought leaders, and now hosts “Credit Gauge Live,” where he and colleagues discuss the state of consumer credit health in the United States and other current industry topics.
Mr. Richardson has been involved with VantageScore since its inception in 2006. At that time, he was Managing Director at a New York City-based public relations firm and served as VantageScore’s public relations counsel during the launch of VantageScore 1.0.
He subsequently joined VantageScore full-time in an executive capacity in 2011. In his current role, Mr. Richardson leads go-to-market strategies, lender engagement, and product marketing for VantageScore. Mr. Richardson holds a degree in journalism from West Virginia University and completed the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Executive Development Program.
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Ester Shin is Senior Vice President, Head of Data and Technology of VantageScore. She leads the data and technology teams, and is responsible for sourcing and negotiating new alternative data partnerships and opportunities for the company. She is also the primary product owner and manager for the development of VantageScore 4plus, a model which incorporates consumer-permissioned bank account data.
Before joining VantageScore, Ms. Shin served as Head of Operations at Pentadata, Inc., a leading financial data platform, where she was responsible for creating and executing strategic initiatives with financial data partners, as well as developing strategic business and product development initiatives.
Prior to her role at Pentadata, she served as Vice President, Chief of Staff and Director of Member Services at the Digital Commerce Alliance, the premier, multi-industry trade association advancing the future of commerce through collaboration, education and standards in card-linking, mobile wallets and financial data.
Ms. Shin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from George Mason University and an Associate of Science degree in Recording Arts at Full Sail University.