David Katz is the Vice President for Strategy and Public Policy for the Asia Pacific region for Circle, a global leader in regulated, licensed digital assets and issuer of the USDC stablecoin. David is a member of Circle’s global and APAC senior leadership teams. His focus is on strategic planning for markets and engaging APAC governments and stakeholders on policies related to Circle’s signature USDC stablecoin.
David previously was Managing Director of Public Affairs for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) APAC for around seven years. David led the corporate communications, government relations & policy, corporate citizenship and sustainable investing functions for KKR across APAC markets and sat on KKR’s Asia Pacific leadership team.
Previously he was the Deputy Head of Global Government Relations and Head of Asia Pacific Government Relations for PayPal Inc. and sat on PayPal’s Asia Pacific leadership team. Prior to PayPal Inc., he worked at eBay Inc., where he led APAC GR for both eBay Marketplace and PayPal - then owned by eBay Inc. Before joining eBay, David worked at Visa Inc. where he served as their first head of GR for the Asia region.
David was also Chief of Party of a USAID program in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat in Singapore, where he advanced policy and capacity building. David served in the Executive Office of the President for eight years as a Senior Director at the United States Trade Representative (USTR) with responsibility for Southeast Asia, APEC and China trade policy. Prior to USTR, David was an economic officer in the U.S. diplomatic service, with tours in Taiwan, Mongolia, and Singapore, and he was a special assistant to U.S. Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.
David earned an MBA from the University of Edinburgh and his BA from the University of California at Berkeley.