Meet VantageScore’s Leadership
Leaders driven to do the right thing.
Silvio Tavares became President and CEO of VantageScore in 2021. VantageScore is the provider of the leading national consumer credit score used by over 2,200 banks, fin-tech apps and financial institutions including Chase, Capital One, Synchrony and others. Tavares is an experienced fin-tech and data analytics CEO. He is also a sought after public company Board Director. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CSG, a NASDAQ- listed provider of 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.
Prior to VantageScore, Tavares was Chairman and CEO of the Digital Commerce Alliance (DCA), a leading global trade association serving the world’s largest banks, fin-techs, merchants and technology companies, including Bank of America, Discover, Google, Microsoft, MasterCard and Walmart among others. At DCA, Tavares led the establishment of the association from just three founding companies to serving members in over 15 countries. Under his leadership, the DCA became the leading technical standards and innovation association for mobile wallets, financial data and card-linked offers.
Earlier, Silvio Tavares was a senior executive at Visa. He served as Senior Vice President of the Information Products business unit and pioneered the use of neural networks for payment card fraud detection and the use of financial data for digital advertising and loyalty applications. Before Visa, Tavares was Senior Vice President and Head of the Information Products business unit at First Data, leveraging financial data to decrease risk for banks and merchants while increasing their revenues. He patented and launched First Data’s first widely followed macro-economic indicator called SpendTrendtm.
Tavares is an inventor or co-inventor of over 16 issued patents in data analytics and financial data. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Boston University, MBA from Boston College and BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Tufts University.
Dr. Rikard Bandebo has spent the last 20 years as a product strategy leader, 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.
Most recently, he served as CPO for Unacast, a location data company, where he helped steer a more product-driven strategy during a period of exciting growth. At Clarivate (a former Thomson Reuters division), he led product strategy for MarkMonitor and managed the divestiture and transition to Investcorp. He also directed product strategy 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, Bandebo led the Analytics and Advisory teams at First Data (now a Fiserv company) where he shared insights on consumer spending, financial services, retail and small business sectors as Chief Economist.
Bandebo earned his Doctorate, Master of Science as well as his Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com), Business, Economics and Computer Science degrees from the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
As VantageScore's lead liaison to the mortgage industry, Bracken represents the company in the marketplace, interfacing with mortgage regulators, executives and analysts to build a consensus on stronger credit-scoring standards and solutions for lenders and consumers.
A senior financial services executive, Bracken has more than 40 years of experience in leading large financial institutions and managing complex government and industry relations programs. Joining VantageScore in April 2018, Bracken was most recently Chief Policy Officer & Head of Government & Industry Relations at Radian Guaranty, where he developed policy and managed relations between government regulators, consumer groups, and trade associations.
Bracken is also the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards, including the Eagle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the Founders Award—Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) and the Andrew D. Woodward Distinguished Service Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Susan Fahy
Executive Vice President and chief digital officer
Fahy leads all digital channels across VantageScore’s organization and product offerings.
Fahy has more than 25 years of experience in digital financial services, analytics and fin-tech; most recently leading analytics capabilities at Bank of America and Fiserv. Prior to Fiserv, 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, Fahy led teams that transformed analytics, defined insights, and drove innovation. Fahy launched several of First Data’s market-leading digital data products.
Fahy received her Master of Business Administration from Dowling College and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management at Carlow College.
Latonia Hubbs
Senior Vice President, Capital Markets and Strategic Alliances
Hubbs leads VantageScore's efforts in the capital markets space, as well as, the deepening of relationships with strategic partners. In this capacity, she works closely with market participants across the capital markets eco-system, and provides support to institutions in the adoption of VantageScore’s products.
Hubbs’ depth and breadth of leadership experience in the capital markets space spans origination, structuring, investing, research, analytics, and risk management. Before joining VantageScore, Hubbs served as a lead securitization analyst at DBRS Morningstar and Moody’s Investors Service, and was the head of marketing research and analytics at First Data/Fiserv. Earlier in her career Hubbs, as head of ABS management at Commerzbank AG (formerly, Dresdner Kleinwort), led teams that oversaw various multibillion dollar securitization and finance company portfolios which included U.S. and global ABS, RMBS, ABCP, warehouse, and whole loans products.
Richardson has been involved with the company since its launch in 2006. In his capacity as managing director at Starkman & Associates, he served as public relations counsel for the introduction of the VantageScore 1.0 model and the launch of the company. Since joining the company full-time, Richardson has spearheaded media-relations strategy for all VantageScore credit scoring models, including the most recently launched VantageScore 4.0, and taken over management of all company marketing communications programs, including advertising, digital outreach, and social media as well as public relations.
Dr. Sahingur leads VantageScore Solution’s deep bench of seasoned data scientists. The team is most recently responsible for developing VantageScore 4.0, which is the first and only tri-bureau credit scoring model to use trended credit data and to leverage machine learning in the development of model attributes to reliably and accurately score those with limited credit histories.
Prior to VantageScore, Dr. Sahingur served as the Chief Risk Officer for Model Risk Management at Fannie Mae in Washington D.C., where he served in several senior risk and analytics roles since 2010.
Bill Sakkab
Executive Vice President AND Chief Legal Counsel
Bill Sakkab serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for VantageScore Solutions and is responsible for overseeing the company’s legal, compliance and government relations functions.
Sakkab joined VantageScore in February 2022. He has more than 20 years of experience in the legal field, including as a Deputy General Counsel at Lending Club Corporation during a period of high growth and rapid innovation at the company and for the fintech industry and as a Chief Counsel at Capital One Financial Corporation where he oversaw the delivery of legal services to corporate treasury and the auto finance and mortgage lines of business.
Sakkab began his career in private practice, including with the international law firms of Clifford Chance and Cadwalader, and graduated from the University of Richmond and the University of Virginia School of Law.