TMonetizing HE Military
much of his time in the special operations community and his last two assignments were as a project manager, a gov- ernment acquisition officer in Army parlance. At one point he was responsible for 26 programs totaling more than $160 million of budgeted funding. Federal regulations require that government employees
W 38 | April • 2012
buying goods and services from civilian contractors under- go a "cooling off" period before they can accept employment from those vendors aſter retiring from the military. The length
BY JASON BRADY
hen Brian Kent retired from the Army in 2005, he knew he couldn't work for another defense contrac- tor. During his 20-year stint, Kent spent
of cooling off depends on the amount of money they spent. "I had given money to just about everybody as an acquisi-
tion officer. I couldn't work for anyone," he said, referring to the hundreds of companies who do business with the military at Fort Bragg. So Kent, with a master's degree in technology management
from Murray State University in western Kentucky, started his civilian career as a technology consultant, identifying emerging information and biometric technologies and pre- senting them to government clients. However, in 2007 Kent took his idea for a company to the
Defense & Security Technology Accelerator and one year lat- er K3 Enterprises became the first company to graduate from
Photography by Byron Jones
