Kent is founding partner of 30X LLC, a global venture advisory firm.  He is also a venture partner at Next Gear Ventures, an Israeli-based venture capital firm focused on early stage mobility startups. Prior to founding 30X, Kent served as head of business development at VectoIQ LLC, an auto tech venture firm, where he helped source, develop and manage the firm’s advisory relationships and investments in mobility startups while helping advance the firm's corporate relationships in the technology ecosystems in the U.S., Israel, Europe and Korea. 

 

He remains a senior advisor to VectoIQ and also serves as senior consultant to Azurest Partners, a boutique investment banking and advisory services firm.  Kent currently serves as board member for European based Nervtech LTD, where he also served as interim COO and is also an advisor to Fleetonomy, an Israeli based startup. He currently serves as a mentor for the Techstars Mobility Accelerator (Detroit) and the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (New York).  Kent actively advises startups as well as larger organizations regarding smart mobility and smart cities solutions and is passionate about helping companies led by underrepresented founders.

 

Kent has over 20 years of financial markets and global investing experience, largely focused on the automotive industry. Early in his career, he was research analyst and vice president at Capital Research & Management Company where he personally managed over $1 billion in automotive and industrial public equity assets.

 

From 2013 to 2017, Kent was portfolio manager and founding partner for Culmen Capital Management LLC, a New York based investment firm specializing in global automotive, industrial and industrial technology related companies. 

 

Prior to Culmen Capital, Kent had a stint as director of equity research at XP Investimentos CCTVM, Brazil’s largest independent broker dealer, in their São Paulo office.  He led the development and launch of the firm’s fundamental equity research product and helped open their New York office.  Kent has also spent time in India analyzing Indian businesses and investments and was visiting lecturer in marketing and finance at Jahangirabad Institute of Technology MBA program located in Uttar Pradesh. He started his career at Citibank N.A. as a corporate trust officer and then as an associate in Citicorp Securities’ Municipal Finance group. 

 

Kent holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he was a Corporate Executive Fellow.