Kent Wills in

Kent Wills

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Member, D2 LP/Advisor Network at ELC
📍 San Francisco, California, United States

Kent Wills is an engineering leader at Yelp, where he directs the Relevance and core Consumer Experience groups, focusing on next-gen search and GenAI product integration. A University of Maryland alumnus, he actively advises for ELC, Next47, and 645 Ventures, coaches other leaders, and contributes to the broader tech community through speaking engagements.

Beyond his primary role, Kent is a US Army veteran who served as a Battalion Tactical Director in Okinawa, Japan. He is passionate about mentoring, having founded a veterans mentorship program at Yelp, and advises developers to build hobby projects to demonstrate passion and hone their skills outside of work.

He co-authored a paper on "AtmoSPHERE, " a novel system for an interactive Zen garden that represents space and movement using sand traces.

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Experience
8 Years
Current Role
Member, D2 LP/Advisor Network
Job Level
Junior
Location
San Francisco, California, United States
Personality Overview

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Communication Style
Decision Approach
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Priorities

Topics Kent cares about

Consumer-Facing AI
Currently leads Yelp's efforts to integrate GenAI and natural language search into consumer products, including the recent launch of the Yelp Assistant.
Engineering Leadership
Coaches engineers and leaders, maintains a leadership reading list, and engages with networks like ELC and LeadDev to discuss topics such as AI fluency and team effectiveness.
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Career

Work history

10-2024
Member, D2 LP/Advisor Network
ELC
9-2024
Member, Executive Advisor Network
Next47
3-2025
Member, Executive Advisor Network
645 Ventures
2-2024
Director of Engineering
Yelp
10-2019 - 2-2024
Director Of Engineering
Yelp
In the press

Media appearances

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Education
2012 - 2014
Master of Science (MSc)
University of Maryland
2003 - 2007
B.S.E.
University of Pittsburgh
Social presence
in
Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

DISC behavioral profile

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