Kelce has been interested in technology from early childhood, building a television jammer at age 12, so his younger sister would walk away from the TV in frustration and leave it for him to watch Star Trek, and also teaching himself assembly language at age 13, so he could program advantages into video games. (His sister caught on to that trick, though, and refused to play afterward.) Naturally, he became a computer hacker later in life, although for a good cause: testing defenses for US military systems, so they could be improved prior to adversaries exploiting weaknesses.

Kelce WilsonAlong the way, he obtained a PhD, focusing on Electromagnetic Field Theory. This opened the door for him to work in some rather interesting military technologies, such as advanced surveillance and tracking radars, radar jammers, and even stealth aircraft. He won Reservist of the Year for solving multiple intractable math problems that had halted development of military programs or projects, and had remained unsolved by other teams of PhD researchers, until they came across his desk.

His initial interest in the legal field was patent law, because it combined law with his love of technology. Starting out in patent prosecution at Fulbright & Jaworski, he eventually moved in-house at BlackBerry. His patent work spans prosecution, litigation, licensing, acquisitions, and even prioritizing inventions to select which ones merit patenting. He is one of the few attorneys who truly understand the patent secrecy order process from all angles: seeing the government side of the process, having his own inventions slapped with secrecy orders, and arguing to lift the orders for clients. More recently, he has leveraged his ability to understand the intersection of law and complex technologies to move into the privacy and data protection (aka cybersecurity) field. He has published multiple peer-reviewed articles in IEEE and other technical journals, including a cybersecurity topic that became an IEEE top-10 download.

Kelce WilsonOne of his greatest passions is for temporarily abandoning technology to explore the great outdoors, with regular off-roading trips on challenging 4×4 trails – although his three daughters do take a higher place in his heart.

He has a BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering, an MBA, and a JD, along with USPTO patent practitioner registration.