Karen Pennell is senior vice president and member of the management committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City with responsibility for the Bank’s Information Technology Division. In these roles, she directs the strategy, priorities, performance objectives and measures of success for the information security, application development and national service desk functions.
Ms. Pennell has been with the Federal Reserve since 1989, and has held numerous leadership positions during her career with the Federal Reserve. Most recently, Ms. Pennell served as the senior executive of End User Services for the Federal Reserve System, after leading a Systemwide initiative to consolidate IT service desk operations and serving as the executive in charge of the Federal Reserve's server management and internal network consolidations. Prior leadership included oversight of the System’s national customer support function for financial services, where she led the consolidation of externally-facing customer support sites into one virtual service desk. Other early leadership roles included responsibilities in Payments System Support and Facilities Management.
Ms. Pennell holds a B.S. from Missouri State University and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst University.