Kent Brown

Co-Founder & Partner, Idea Well Capital Partners

Kent Brown is an entrepreneur, climate tech leader, and builder of sustainable businesses. Kent co-founded Idea Well Capital Partners in 2021, a venture capital / private equity fund focused on climate tech and energy transition businesses primarily in Western Canada with global scalability. Idea Well finds great opportunities, puts skin in the game alongside their investment partners, and works hand in hand with management teams in meaningful ways to help achieve their vision & change the world. They contribute capital, knowledge & effort.

Prior to this, Kent was the founding CEO & Director of BluEarth Renewables from 2010 to 2015 and Founder & Executive Advisor, Director until December 2019. In less than five years at BluEarth, Kent and his team created significant value, growing the business from nothing to over $1.2 billion of high quality, long-term contracted, Canadian renewable energy assets and over 50 employees, with a compounded return to investors of over 25% per year, significantly outperforming its peers.

Prior to co-founding BluEarth, Kent was CEO of Canadian Hydro Developers, building a company with a strong culture and over 130 passionate employees – sustainably growing the business to become Canada’s largest renewable energy company, with a compounded return to investors of 30% per year over a nine-year period, and an enterprise value of $1.6 billion, significantly outperforming its peers.

Kent is passionate about climate change and has played key roles in assisting in the development of government policy to address climate change. In August 2015, he was appointed by the Government of Alberta’s Climate Change Advisory Panel to co-lead and co-facilitate Electricity Stakeholder Technical Engagement sessions, which lead to the Climate Leadership Plan, Alberta’s first policy response to climate change. He continues to be an influencer and sounding board for policy development.

Along with his wife, he co-created The Catherine Bell & Kent Brown Awakened Company Award at Queen’s for the Master of Entrepreneurship & Innovation to support high-performing academic students who couldn’t otherwise afford tuition for this program.

Kent holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) from Western University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Accountant. Kent was named one of Canada’s Clean50; Canadian Innovator of the Year by Clean Energy Canada; one of Canada’s Top Energy Innovators by Alberta Oil Magazine; and one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People by Alberta Venture Magazine.