In 2001, Lake became deputy president responsible for all of Aflac’s business operations in Japan and in 2003 was named Aflac Japan president. As vice chairman from 2005 and chairman from 2008, he led transformative management initiatives including establishing Aflac’s strategic alliance with the Japan Post Group, expanding the distribution channel into the banking sector, converting Aflac’s Japan operations into a legal entity under Japan’s corporate law, and delivering innovative enhancements to the Company’s global group governance structure and framework for strategy development and execution. Lake became Aflac International President in 2014.

Before joining Aflac, Lake practiced law in Washington, D.C. and served as director of Japan affairs and special counsel at the office of the U.S. Trade Representative in the Executive Office of the President.

He currently serves as an independent outside director on the board of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. and leads the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission as chair and commissioner while concurrently serving as U.S. chair of the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), a bilateral advisory body. Lake is a director on the board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and an advisor on the Government of Japan’s Council for Promotion of Foreign Direct Investment in the Cabinet Office. He previously served for ten years as an outside director on the board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, seven years as an outside director on the board of Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd. and six years on the board of Tokyo Electron, Ltd.

Among other external recognitions, in 2012, Lake received the State of Georgia’s Governor George Busbee Award for contributions to Georgia-Japan relations; in 2018, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Emperor of Japan for his contributions to the development of Japan’s insurance and financial services industries and strengthening U.S.-Japan economic relations; and, in 2025, he received the Japan-America Society of Washington D.C.’s Marshall Green Award for his sustained and significant contributions to strengthening relations between the United States and Japan.

Lake received his bachelor’s degrees in Asian studies and political science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa and a Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University School of Law. He was a Monbusho Scholarship recipient for graduate research at the University of Tokyo and completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.