Richard F. Smith (born c. 1961) is an American business executive. He served as the chairman and chief executive officer of

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agency, consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and T ...

from 2005 to 2017.

Early life

Smith was born circa 1961. He graduated from

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

Career

Smith worked at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

for two decades. He served as the chairman and CEO of

from 2005 to 2017, when he retired in the wake of the

data breach A data breach, also known as data leakage, is "the unauthorized exposure, disclosure, or loss of personal information". Attackers have a variety of motives, from financial gain to political activism, political repression, and espionage. There ...

of approximately 145.5 million customers. Because Smith retired instead of getting fired, he is expected to receive $90 million, including performance-based unvested stocks and $18.5 in retirement benefits, according to ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...

''. Smith serves on the advisory board of DocuSign.

References

External links

Richard Smith
on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

Living people 1960s births Purdue University alumni American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives General Electric employees Equifax people {{US-business-bio-1960s-stub