Wilson graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1979 with a B.Sc., Electrical Engineering. His career has predominantly centred on the telecommunications sector, and he is currently a specialist, technical product development at Telkom. He has worked on the National Transmission Plan and other topics in the field of telephonometry.

Wilson contributed to the establishment of electronic mail networks, and has specialised in network management as well as naming, numbering and addressing standards. He was also involved in the early stages of the ATM and ADSL networks and has been intimately involved with Internet infrastructure.

Wilson received the SAIEE Engineer of the Year award in 2002. He is a founder member of the South African Chapter of the Internet Society and was one of the initial board members of the .za Domain Name Authority. He is a Fellow of the SAIEE and registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).