Prior to joining JMP, Kent was an Executive Director at Lehman Brothers in the real estate investment banking group, based in London. Kent previously served as a Senior Vice President in PaineWebber's real estate investment banking group in San Francisco. Since 1995, Kent has been involved in over $5 billion of public debt and equity capital raising transactions and over $10 billion of domestic and international mergers and acquisitions transactions.

Kent holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Oklahoma.