nreynolds19@nul.org

Nichole Francis Reynolds is Vice President of Public Policy & Community Relations at Mastercard. Ms. Francis Reynolds is responsible for shaping and promoting the interests of Mastercard in the areas of tax, trade, privacy, cyber and data security, intellectual property, and emerging payments. She is also instrumental in the execution of Mastercard’s community relations program. As a lawyer and lobbyist, she works with members of Congress, Administration officials, and industry associations on global payment issues. Ms. Francis Reynolds assists in the distribution of Mastercard’s PAC, which serves more than 210 countries and territories and roughly 14,000 employees that operate the world’s fastest payments processing network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments, and businesses. Through Mastercard’s payment solutions, it delivers value and connects close to two billion cardholders with tens of millions of merchants around the world.

Ms. Francis Reynolds has a unique combination of legal, legislative and political experience. She spent ten years in Washington D.C. in a variety of roles on Capitol Hill including Chief of Staff to two key Members of Congress, a District Director, and counsel on the Homeland Security Committee. She became adept at building relationships with Members of Congress, staff on both sides of the aisle, and organizations to pass bipartisan legislation and advance policies that improve the lives of all Americans in areas including financial services and manufacturing. She also gained political experience working on national presidential elections and congressional races.

Before serving on Capitol Hill, Ms. Francis Reynolds practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of Baker Hostetler and defended clients in matters involving professional malpractice, employment litigation, trade, antitrust claims, and policy issues including health care and federal and state taxation. She also practiced law in the Nashville office of Baker Donelson and defended clients in matters involving health care and automobile products liability. While at Baker Donelson, she also worked on federal and state public policy matters involving taxation, municipal finance, and health care.

Ms. Francis Reynolds graduated cum laude and with honors with a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Michigan University in 1997 and received her law degree in 2001 from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She is also fluent in Spanish.

Ms. Francis Reynolds is a Member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Values Commission, and serves on the boards of Beauvoir-the National Cathedral Elementary School, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Corporate Advisory Council, Teach for America DC Region (9/1), and Imagination Stage DC (9/1).