Anna M. Alvarado
General Counsel
FirstCash, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCFS)
Anna Alvarado is the global General Counsel and a member of the executive team of FirstCash, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS)—a component of the S&P 600 and the Russell 2000 Index. Anna is a business-oriented, operationally focused legal executive who is bilingual (fluent in Spanish) and bicultural. She has broad-based expertise leading business and legal advisory services, including scalability, expansion, and integration. Anna leads an international team of 55+ individuals and directs all global legal matters. This includes corporate governance, litigation, real estate & leasing, compliance & customer service, M&A, corporate finance, government affairs, and public relations both in the United States and Latin America. Anna’s position requires regular travel and she frequently liaises with elected or appointed officials including attorneys general, state governors, former heads of state, and former and current federal agency heads, directors and cabinet secretaries.
FirstCash is a specialty retail and financial services company and the world’s leading international operator of retail pawn stores with revenues of almost $2 billion and a market capitalization of $4.4 billion. FirstCash employs approximately 22,000 people throughout the United States and Latin America. FirstCash’s purpose is serving cash and credit-constrained people by providing customers with judgment-free, instant access to capital through non-recourse pawn loans collateralized by personal property. By buying used merchandise and selling the forfeited collateral, the company and its customers are extending the lifetime value of goods and contributing to the circular economy.
Anna is passionate about what she does. Since joining FirstCash in 2011, she’s built a solid team of “legal samurais” who ensure that FirstCash operates as smoothly, efficiently and risk-appropriate as possible. She enjoys problem solving and working in a fast, dynamic and very demanding business environment while staying focused on the primary importance of people and the culture she’s helped create at FirstCash. Anna is known for driving high performance through candor, performance coaching and building relationships of trust. In addition, Anna’s roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic, business judgment and an operational focus have contributed to significant costs saves and efficiencies for FirstCash. She coordinates all major domestic and international business transactions, serves a key role in expansion, corporate initiatives and post-merger synergies and integration which include the merger with its largest publicly traded competitor in September 2016, realizing $80 million in synergies through 2018 (named “USA deal of the Year” by Global M&A Network). Additionally, in 2018, Anna led and negotiated the company’s largest acquisition activity in Mexico and was awarded “Financials Deal of the Year” by the M&A Advisor.
Before joining FirstCash, Anna was a trial attorney (first chair experience) with law firms in Texas. Before a career in law, she was as an accountant. Anna holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bentley University in Massachusetts, a Master’s in Business Administration from McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University and a law degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law (Dallas, TX),
Anna’s community leadership includes being a current PTO board member of her children’s school, mentoring at Paschal High School (Fort Worth, TX), and a graduate of Leadership Fort Worth’s Leading Edge Program. Her past community leadership includes serving as a member of the Women’s Policy Forum Foundation Board, the Board of Girl Scouts Texas Oklahoma Plains, and the board of the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas – Fort Worth Chapter. In 2011, Anna was selected as one of the recipients of the Fort Worth Business Press’ “40 under 40,” which honors men and women under the age of 40 who are helping to shape the future through their business and community involvement. Anna was voted Top Corporate Attorney in 2017 and 2018 by Fort Worth, The City’s Magazine.
Anna lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and two children Sebastian and Sofia. She and her family enjoy traveling—their favorite thing is discovering and exploring new places and cultures.
