DSC FOUNDER/CEO

Everett N. Kelsey Jr. —  is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-raised technologist and futurist who made the rare leap from the entertainment industry to the front lines of ethical technology development. Now based in Southern California — after years living in Germany and traveling between both coasts of the U.S. and both sides of the Atlantic — Kelsey brings a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary lens to one of the most urgent challenges of our time: reclaiming civil liberties in the digital age.

A former actor, director, and writer whose work was featured in top film festivals and studios, Kelsey was compelled to walk away from Hollywood when he realized that the same systems of influence shaping media narratives were also quietly reshaping the rules of power, surveillance, and truth in the digital sphere. That awakening forced a reinvention — not just of his career, but of his mission.

Today, Kelsey is the founder and CEO of BLKMKT AI, a sovereign software company focused on ethical AI and the development of culturally fluent large language models (LLMs), and BLKMKT Tech, a consulting firm that advises on equitable, decentralized technology systems. He also serves as the public voice of the Fifth Industrial Revolution AI platform, a modern-day “town crier” channel that explores the impact of artificial intelligence, government policy, and corporate consolidation in everyday life.

Kelsey’s work is deeply rooted in his lineage. He is the grandson of Dr. George D. Kelsey, the revered theologian and professor who was a spiritual and intellectual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This legacy is not symbolic — it is strategic. Kelsey sees the teachings of his grandfather not as history, but as a design pattern for the future. Through his ventures, he is actively working to encode those moral principles into the very architecture of sovereign LLMs, data systems, and AI governance frameworks.

As a bilingual (English/German) speaker currently studying Russian, Kelsey’s international life experience and linguistic fluency give him a rare ability to see technological threats and opportunities from multiple cultural vantage points. Whether confronting the overreach of big tech, the quiet rise of surveillance capitalism, or the erosion of digital rights, his approach is both philosophical and practical — grounded in code, community, and conscience.

Now, through his leadership at the Digital Sovereignty Coalition (DSC), Kelsey is weaving his civil rights pedigree into a broader movement. One that draws not from nostalgia, but from necessity — a new Digital Civil Rights Movement built for a world of algorithms, cloud infrastructure, and coercive data systems. His goal is simple, but urgent: to ensure that the future of technology is defined by freedom, not control.