Connie Theien serves as the Federal Reserve’s head of industry relations, leading efforts to engage stakeholders in advancing U.S. payment system improvements and collaborating to drive adoption of faster payments in the United States.

Theien leads collaboration and education programs focused on faster payments, fraud prevention, and efficiency improvements for B2B and cross-border payments. She is responsible for actively involving 10,000 members of the FedPayments Improvement Community in initiatives to improve the end-to-end speed, efficiency and security of payments in the country, in addition to building industry support and advocacy for the FedNow instant payments service.

Prior to her tenure at the Fed, she led marketing and public relations efforts for nonprofit, retail and academic organizations. Theien holds a B.A. in communications and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.