Steve is a Senior Advanced Analytics Leader and General Manager with broad experience developing and implementing advanced analytic products and decisioning platform solutions in large financial institutions. Steve has nearly 25 years of financial services experience, initially fostered at American Express as an econometrician building consumer credit models. He then joined Discover Financial Services, where he was Senior Vice President, Chief Data Scientist, and a member of the Management Committee (the senior corporate strategy committee below the Executive Committee). Steve has a deep-rooted understanding of consumer financial services, having overseen enterprise teams responsible for analytics, modeling, marketing, credit, fraud, collections, operations, and AML.

Core to Steve’s success across these roles has been his ability to advise, develop and pursue corporate strategic objectives through innovative use of data science, analytics, and modeling while ensuring proper calibration to an organization’s risk appetite and adherence to the organization’s risk management standards. Steve has invaluable insights into the federal banking agencies on supervisory, examination, and policy matters. His extensive experience has allowed him to develop new programs in sensitive regulatory areas, such as AML and credit underwriting, that take full advantage of advances in AI and ML. These advances’ success depended on successful communication with the agencies on how associated risks were being well managed. Steve’s active engagement with Risk during projects goes beyond early partnership expectations and includes high-level input and feedback on developing key risk initiatives, policies, and processes.

As a general manager, Steve promotes an analytic perspective to business processes, including identifying, collecting, and managing critical data, developing analytical tools, models, and processes, and ensuring appropriate monitoring and testing to meet corporate values. This is amplified by Steve’s ability to build, develop, and sustain cross-functional teams to support this end-to-end perspective. Throughout his career, Steve was a member of various governance committees, including the Model Risk Management Committee, Operational Risk Committee, Anti-Money Laundering Committee, and Consumer Credit Management Committee.

Steve was born and raised in Arizona. He and his family call Chicago home after surviving (and learning to enjoy) eighteen winters. Steve earned his Ph.D. in Economics at The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ.