Munish Pahwa, PhD

Munish leads Sallie Mae’s integrated risk and compliance function, overseeing all financial and non-financial risk management activities and fostering a strong risk culture across the company. He also manages relationships with regulators.

Munish joined Sallie Mae in 2021 as Chief Credit Risk Officer. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President at Bank of America and held senior roles at Bank of New York Mellon, PNC National Bank, and MBNA over a 25+ year career. His expertise spans consumer lending, deposit products, credit and risk management, decision science, business transformation, operations, and regulatory management, with projects across North America, Europe, China, and India.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from MACT, Bhopal, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Delaware.

Munish serves on the board of the University of Delaware’s Center for Economic Education & Entrepreneurship and on the Smith Enterprise Risk Consortium Advisory Council at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.