BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. - Sept. 3, 2019 - UMACHA, Upper Midwest Automated Clearing House Association, announced today that Angi Farren AAP, APRP will serve as the association's President and CEO, following Fred Laing's retirement on September 1, 2019. Farren assumed the role of President and CEO on June 1, 2019, overlapping with Laing in order to ensure a smooth transition after 35 years of service with the Payment's Association.
Angi is a seasoned Electronic Payments Professional who brings over 27 years in the payments industry to the position: 11+ years with UMACHA, and an additional 16+ years working in the banking industry developing her expertise in ACH and other electronic banking products and services as well as in risk management, earning her AAP (Accredited ACH Professional) designation in 2000 and the APRP (Accredited Payments Risk Professional) designation in 2018.
Prior to moving into the President and CEO role, Angi served as UMACHA's Executive Vice President and COO overseeing all aspects of the association including membership, education, consulting and compliance services as well as finance, marketing and human resources. She has been a driving force in planning UMACHA's annual Navigating Payments Conference and Fraud Symposiums. She fosters strong relationships both with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Financial Retailers Protection Association (FRPA) to host these and other large association events.
Over the years she has served on several Nacha (National Automated Clearing House Association) committees, including Nacha's Electronic Check Council (ECC) which is now part of the Payments Innovation Alliance (PIA). She currently serves on Nacha's Government Relations Advisory Group (GRAG) and is an active participant at PIA. She is also a member of the Federal Reserve's Business Payments Coalition. Angi has partnered with the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization (ECCHO) part of The Clearing House (TCH) and serves on the Payment Associations Executive Leadership Forum and is past chair of the Marketing and Communications Committee.
Angi is an active part of the ACH industry's effort to move payments faster, having sat on the Secure Payments Task Force from 2015-2017, and is now involved with the Faster Payments Council (FPC), participating on the Education and Awareness Work Group and Nacha's Faster Payments Playbook Work Group to help create tools and inform and educate the industry and UMACHA's members about faster payments and what that means to our financial institutions and corporate members.
Angi is looking forward to being part of the next generation of ACH products and services and leading UMACHA into the future with exploration of new products, training and services to offer its 740+ member banks, credit unions, affiliates, and partner organizations located in Minnesota, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. "We continue to evolve and reinvent ourselves as an organization and have expanded our capabilities tremendously over the past 45 years. I know there's more that we can do to support our members and I'm looking forward to those challenges and successes."
In addition to Angi being named President and CEO, several other UMACHA employees have been awarded with promotions, including Danyell Pozorski, AAP, promoted to Senior Director of Operations and Membership, Jennifer Miller, AAP, APRP promoted to the Senior Director of Services, and Sara Hentges, AAP was promoted to Director of Compliance earlier this summer.
Media Contact
Media Contact: Rhonda Whittaker
Marketing Manager, UMACHA
816.595.7632
rhondaw@umacha.org
763-201-9609