Stephen Evans

Stephen Evans co-founded Pave Finance in 2021 and serves as Chief Investment Officer, overseeing investment strategy and execution across Pave Finance, Inc. and Pave Investment Advisors, LLC., the company’s wholly-owned registered investment adviser subsidiary. Steve is the architect of Pave Pro, the proprietary optimization engine at the core of Pave’s platform, and is responsible for the quantitative models that power it.

Steve brings more than 25 years of experience in investment management, with a career built on the development and refinement of factor-based, quantitative strategies. From 2004 to 2017, he co-managed the World Thematic Alpha Portfolio (WTAP) at U.S. Trust, a quantitative strategy spanning approximately $7 billion in assets across the flagship portfolio and custom managed accounts. During his tenure, WTAP ranked in the top 1% of its peer group for annualized alpha and information ratio. Earlier in his career, Steve served as a portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch, where he generated 99th percentile returns for more than a decade using the same proprietary quant models that now power Pave Pro. He has also held Managing Director roles at several investment advisory firms, where he developed and implemented the factor-based strategies that remain at the foundation of Pave’s investment approach today.

Steve holds a B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College, an M.A. in English Literature from McNeese State University, and an M.B.A. with distinction from Rider University. He is also a CFA charterholder.