Kent is an experienced CIA Case Officer. He has worked in various capacities in Human Intelligence positions in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His specialty is Counter-terrorism and Islamic Extremism. Kent has also worked Counter-intelligence, Counter-proliferation, Counter-narcotics, and other targets. In addition to extensive liaison work with foreign intel services, he has worked in the US Intel Community in inter-agency, inter-governmental intelligence operations since 9/11. He was awarded the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion, the highest civilian intelligence agency decoration for contractors, for his counter-terrorist operations in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. His work in the Philippines was described in an Atlantic Monthly article in March 2007, “Jihadists in Paradise.”

Kent is the author of the soon-to-be-released non-fiction book, “Willing Accomplices: An Intelligence Officer’s Shocking Proof That Soviet Spies Manipulated American Culture, Hollywood, the News Media, Academia and the Democratic Party and Created Political Correctness.”

In addition to this professional specialty, Kent has a strong background in Linguistics, foreign languages, Cultural Orientation/Training, English as a Second Language, and Instructional Design. He worked with refugees throughout Southeast Asia, including the Refugee Processing Center in Bataan, Philippines. He has taught at the university level in Saudi Arabia, and did language consulting in England and Italy.

In the US Air Force, Kent was a Vietnamese linguist, completing language training at DLI in Monterey, CA. He served for three years at Clark AB in the Philippines.

An entrepreneur, during the dot.com era, Kent left government service, and became an executive recruiter. As a headhunter, his specialty is Computational Linguistics and Ontology. He established himself as the world’s premier headhunter in this field, and built several Ontology groups for start-ups. The Wall St Journal used Kent’s expertise to write an extensive article on the subject in 1999, “Not Just Eggheads Any More, Linguists Jump to the Net.” In addition, he has a patent on a device to stop unattended cooking fires, and is working to educate consumers that they do not have to accept the manufacturers’ lack of a safety device (www.unattendedcooking.com). Currently, he consults on counter-terrorism and intelligence for government and other clients, as well as recruiting and international business consulting.

Kent’s educational background includes a BA in Southeast Asian Studies-Linguistics and an MA in Linguistics and Business, as well as graduate studies in Instructional Design. He has more or less linguistic expertise in Vietnamese, Italian, Malay/Indonesian, Spanish, and Arabic. He is a member of the International Association for Intelligence Education; the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, the Association for Intelligence Officers, the National Fire Protection Association, the National Association of Subrogation Professionals, and other related professional groups.

Kent has designed and taught numerous courses in Terrorism, Area Studies, Cultural Orientation, Islam, Islamic Extremism, Human Intelligence, Tradecraft, ESL, and other related areas.