Managing Director, APAC GATES

Seth Hays is Managing Director and Co-founder of APAC GATES, a non-profit and association management consultancy based in Seattle and Taipei.

Seth has worked in the non-profit sector in Asia for over two decades, with extensive government affairs accomplishments. His experience includes advocating for strong intellectual property protections in trade agreements such as RCEP and CPTPP; testifying before the Hong Kong Legislative Council on innovation policy; speaking at an experts group at the Senior Officials Meeting of APEC 2018; and contributing to briefs before the Supreme Courts of India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In addition to governments across Asia, Seth has worked with inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, INTERPOL, World Customs Organization, APEC, ASEAN and SAARC. Additionally in 2021, Seth was a visiting scholar at the East-West Center and Korea Foundation researching US and Korea cooperation on innovation policy and economic security in Southeast Asia.

He is a member of the New York State Bar, studied non-profit management at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, has a graduate degree in Pacific and Asian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi, and has an undergraduate degree in Science, Technology and Society from Vassar College. He speaks Mandarin and has lived and worked in Japan, China and Southeast Asia. He currently resides in Taiwan with his family.