Mr. Dent is a native of Washington, DC. After attending the University of Maryland, where he earned a Bachelor's in history, he served in the Peace Corps in Chile. Upon his return, he did graduate work at the University of Chicago, earning a Master's degree in education and an MBA in finance. With the support of the Ford Foundation, Mr. Dent moved to Brazil to serve as a consultant to BNDES, the National Development Bank of Brazil, where he assisted Roberto Lima Netto in founding SEBRAE, Brazil's Small Business Administration. Mr. Dent then served as project manager at the Inter-American Development Bank putting together a number of innovative projects in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Costa Rica, involving investments in excess of $2 billion. During the 1990's, Mr. Dent founded and was CEO of CD-ROM International, pioneering the introduction of U.S. and European bibliographic databases at universities throughout Brazil. After a consulting assignment with the World Wildlife Fund (USA), Mr. Dent realized how relevant his business experience could be to local environmental groups in Latin America and began a mentoring program for environmental leaders in Brazil to help them improve their business skills to do community-based projects that combine biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. In February 2003, he founded Natural Partners (www.npartners.org) to help NGOs in Latin America to mobilize the financial and human resources needed to preserve their natural heritage. Mr. Dent currently serves as the Executive Director and leads its major programs: (1) the Monarch Sister Schools Program (www.monarchsisterschools.org); (2) the Atlantic Rainforest Program in Brazil promoting the building of “ecological corridors” from the remaining fragments of that rainforest; and (3) an innovative eco-travel program in Brazil and Mexico to generate support for the preservation of vital natural areas in those countries.