Seth Hays

Seth Hays is Managing Director and Co-founder of APAC GATES, a non-profit management and rights advocacy consultancy based in Taipei. Seth has worked in the public interest and non-profit sector in Asia for over two decades, with extensive government affairs experience, including advocacy for consumer protection and anti-illicit trade protections in international agreements such as RCEP and CPTPP; testifying before the Hong Kong Legislative Council on innovation policy; and contributing to briefs before the Supreme Courts of India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Additionally, Seth has worked with inter-governmental organizations on numerous capacity trainings for intellectual property law, such as with the United Nations, INTERPOL, World Customs Organization, APEC, ASEAN and SAARC. 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.