Wistar Kay

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Business Development Manager
International Trade Division
Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development

Wistar Kay assists Washington State software and telecom companies with finding partners and making sales in Asia, Europe, Canada and Mexico. She works closely with the technology associations in the state, including WSA (formerly Washington Software Alliance) where she serves as the leader of the International Special Interest Group. She has also been involved with the interactive media industry and took a group of game software developers to China in the fall of 2005.

Previously, Wistar was Executive Director of the Japan America Society for the State of Washington and organized several trade missions to Japan focused on the development of wireless applications in that country. She has had a career in the hospitality industry managing international conferences and she has been in sales and marketing with the American Cultural Exchange, the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, the Four Seasons Hotels, and Westin Hotels.

She has also done intercultural training and presented workshops on doing business with the Japanese to over thirty-five companies and organizations.

Wistar was born and raised in Japan and received a BA with honors from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She also attended Kansai University of Foreign Studies in Japan and the Université Aix-Marseilles in France.