Deborah Reyes

For nearly three decades, Deborah Reyes has worked in government and public affairs — the counsel executives seek when a decision carries regulatory or political weight. Her career has been spent at the intersection of government, business, and financial services, where a single piece of legislation can reshape an enterprise, and where understanding how power actually moves is itself a form of protection.

She directed U.S. Government Relations for CURO Financial Technologies across twenty-seven states, and spent fourteen years before that at Advance America, where she led multi-state advocacy and helped build the government affairs organization that covered all thirty-five states in which the company operated. At CURO, she advised the chief executive, senior leadership, and the Risk and Compliance Committee of the Board on the risks that never appear on a balance sheet. Over her career she set legislative strategy across dozens of jurisdictions, provided testimony before state legislative committees, engaged federal policymakers, and built the coalitions that decided outcomes when the stakes were highest.

Her career began in public service, serving the City of Austin and later the Texas Water Development Board, where she worked alongside elected officials, agency leadership, and community stakeholders on planning, infrastructure, and statewide legislative initiatives. What she carried out of that work, and into every room since, is not a title but a standard — discretion, judgment, and an integrity that does not yield to the pressure of the moment.

She holds a Master of Science from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The University of Texas at San Antonio. She is also a qualified mediator in the State of Texas.

At J.R. Larkin & Co., Deborah brings that judgment to the decisions where financial, regulatory, and political risk are bound together — where the outcome turns as much on people and interests as on the numbers. She sees the entire field: who holds leverage, where the exposure lies, and how events are likely to unfold before they do. It is the same discipline she brought to the boardroom — reading the terrain, anticipating the risk, and helping a client move with greater clarity and foresight.