[citation needed] Hayes played football at Cornell University, while studying pre-law for a year,[3] then transferred to the Krannert School of Management[3] at Purdue University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics[1] in 1982.

[3] After graduating, Hayes joined Sundstrand Corporation, which was acquired by United Technologies (UTC) in 1999.

[6] In September 2022, Foreign Ministry of China spokesperson Mao Ning announced at a press briefing that China has imposed sanctions on Hayes and Boeing Defense, Space & Security CEO Theodore Colbert III, in response to the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan.

It is not immediately known what the Chinese sanctions against Hayes and Colbert would entail, and it is often mainly symbolic in nature.

[7] Hayes served on President Trump’s American Manufacturing Council in January 2017, until resigning, in August 2017.