Prior to entering provincial politics, Kent served as Mayor and deputy mayor of the City of Mount Pearl, and he has worked as the chief executive officer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Newfoundland, as the executive director at United Way of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, and as the manager of corporate development at Stirling Communications.
Kent graduated from O'Donel High School in Mount Pearl in 1996, where he had held the position of student council president.
In 2006, he launched The FOCUS Group Consulting to provide management and marketing services to private and volunteer sector organizations.
In 2002, Kent was appointed to a three-year term on the Minister's Advisory Committee to review the province's new Child, Youth and Family Services Act.
[citation needed] In March 2000, Kent announced he was seeking the Liberal Party of Canada nomination for a by-election to be held in the riding of St. John's West.
[2] After his announcement, The Telegram revealed that a string of emails obtained by their paper showed that Kent had been considering seeking the Canadian Alliance nomination in the riding.
[7] Progressive Conservative member of the House of Assembly (MHA) Harvey Hodder opted to not to run for re-election in the 2007 Newfoundland and Labrador general election.
[citation needed] On 13 October 2010, Kent was named Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister Responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency.
[12][13] Kent resigned from his Cabinet positions on 3 July 2014, in order to run for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party.
In October 2019, an out-of-province labour lawyer was brought in to investigate Kent's workplace interactions with city staff following complaints by several municipal workers.
[23] He resigned as CAO on 25 June 2020, days after the City Council of Mount Pearl tabled a motion to dismiss him from the position.
[24] Allegations made in the case included that Kent had mocked subordinates in front of other staff and berated workers verbally.