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 9 out of the top 10 US Banks. 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 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.
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 was also a product leader 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.
Bill Sakkab
Executive Vice President AND Chief Legal Counsel
Bill Sakkab is a results-focused legal and business executive who excels in building high-performing teams. He possesses deep experience developing innovative and value-creating business and legal solutions. Mr. Sakkab has a successful track record of advising Founders, CEOs, COOs, CFOs and Boards in financial services and technology companies.
Mr. Sakkab joined the VantageScore senior team in January 2022 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. He brings extensive legal, compliance and operational risk acumen to the organization, with more than 20 years of experience in the financial services and technology industries—including as a Deputy General Counsel at Lending Club Corporation during a period of high growth and rapid innovation. He also served as a Functional General Counsel and a Chief Counsel at Capital One Financial Corporation where he oversaw delivery of legal services to corporate treasury and the auto finance and mortgage lines of business.
Mr. Sakkab has the legal, risk management and leadership skills necessary to effectively navigate the regulatory landscape while also building a vibrant risk culture internally. An accomplished business and legal executive with demonstrated success working in the technology and financial services industries, Mr. Sakkab has broad expertise in product strategy and development, capital markets, consumer finance, government affairs, complex commercial transactions, operational risk and regulatory compliance.
Mr. Sakkab graduated from the University of Richmond with a BA in Leadership Studies and Political Science. He earned his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Susan Fahy
Executive Vice President and chief digital officer
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 all of 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, 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 including SpendTrendtm.
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.