Matthew S. Friedman


Matthew S. Friedman is an American human rights advocate with an expertise in human trafficking and modern slavery. He is currently the chief executive officer of the Mekong Club, a Hong Kong-based organization that mobilizes the private sector to help fight modern slavery.

Biography

Friedman grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. In a career spanning three decades, he has worked as a manager, a program designer, an evaluator, and a frontline responder in multiple countries, including Nepal, Bangladesh, and Thailand. In 2012, he founded the Mekong Club, a Hong Kong-based nonprofit organization that supports businesses to identify and address modern slavery in their supply chains.
Friedman has raised awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery through writing articles for the South China Morning Post, delivering TEDx Talks, and speaking at many other events around the world.
In the summer of 2016, alongside his wife, Sylvia Yu Friedman, he delivered presentations on the topic of human trafficking across 17 US states to 112 organizations, including Bank of America and Disney.
In 2017, he won Public Affairs Asia's Gold Standard Award for Communicator of the Year.
He has authored several fiction and nonfiction books, some of which are based on his counter-trafficking work.

Publications

The Gorkha Urn, University Editions, Huntington, WV, March 1997, Tara: A Fleshtrade Odyssey, Vikas Publishing, New Delhi, India, March 1997, Nepalese Casted Decanters, Vessels and Bowls, Pilgrims Publishing House, Varanasi, India, April 2000, Bangladesh Metal Casting: Five Techniques, University Press Ltd, Dhaka Bangladesh, April 2001, Proximity and Time, Pilgrims Publishing House, Varanasi, India, February 2003, Nepalese Cast Religious and Cultural Lamps, Pilgrims Publishing House, Varanasi, India, June 2003, In the Shadow of the Tamarind Tree, Vijitha Yapa Publishing House, Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 2005, Paths Less Traveled, Pilgrims Publishing House, Varanasi, India, April 2009, Afghan Girl, Kindle Direct Publishing, November 2014, ASIN: B00QRDK1CG Where Were You?: A Profile of Modern Slavery, Freedom Campaign, January 2016, ASIN: B01A6EPRSE Be the Hero: Be the Change, Freedom Publishers, March 2020,