Carl Kay is a consultant who works with services sector companies in the US and Japan to develop new markets, new capabilities and new partnerships. Kay combines long experience as a services sector business founder and operator with academic research in the services field, to offer insightful and practical advice to companies on both sides of the Pacific.

Areas of particular expertise include strategy for international business at small and mid-sized firms, international alliances, scalable solutions for language and cultural barriers, involving customers in value co-creation, and corporate ethnography as a tool for breakthrough innovations.

After graduating from Harvard College in 1978 Kay founded a company that became a leading provider of Japanese localization to US software companies such as Microsoft and Adobe. The company was sold in 1998 to a larger company that went public on US NASDAQ in 1999.

Since 2000 Kay has been active as an angel investor and outside director at numerous firms including venture incubator J-Seed, an adjunct faculty member at Meiji University, and author of a book and numerous articles about services in Japan. He is a Doctor of Business Administration candidate at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Corporate Strategy in Tokyo.

Carl is volunteer president of the Harvard Club of Japan, which at nearly 4,000 members is one of the largest organizations of Harvard alumni outside the USA. He splits his time between residences in Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Carl Kay
Tokyo, Japan
TEL +81 80 5447 5144
FAX +81 3 5727 1397