Jeffrey R. Wells is the Co-chair of the Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Privacy team, and is a cybersecurity professional responsible for keeping organizations safe and protecting the privacy of employees around the world.

With over 25 years of global experience leading cybersecurity engagement, Jeffrey engages clients by leveraging existing infrastructure and talent, establishing effective cyber resilience strategies and responding to immediate incidents and emerging cyber threats.

Recently, Jeffrey led a Joint Inter-Agency Task Force countering transregional organized cyber-crime and violent extremism while addressing current and emerging risks impacting national security, commerce and critical infrastructure. Jeffrey has advised and consulted with cyber startups as well as venture, private equity and angel investment organizations on cybersecurity-related strategies including cyber-due diligence and the commercialization of cybersecurity technologies and ideas.

Appointed “Cyber Czar” by two Maryland governors, he was responsible for aligning commercial, federal and military cybersecurity initiatives with NIST, NSA, U.S. Cyber Command and other military and government entities. Jeffrey also served as vice-president of the Maryland Cybersecurity Roundtable, was a founding partner of the NIST – National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and the BENS Cyber & Tech Council.

Prior to joining Clark Hill, Jeffrey founded a White Hat cyber advisory firm, Innovation Intelligence. Jeffrey began his cyber career in the military intelligence community for the United States Department of Defense and intelligence agencies and is a member of Military Cyber Professionals Association. Jeffrey has been a participant in numerous U.S. government-sponsored security advisory and trade missions and has attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Forbes Global CEO Conference.

He is a graduate of Colorado State University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and has Certificates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Harvard University, London School of Economics, Tel Aviv University, Oxford University, George Washington University School of Business; and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.