Brent de Jong - AEI (Houston, TX)
Brent de Jong is founder and Vice Chairman of AEI. AEI owns, manages and operates power generation plants and delivers electric power and gas to over 6.1 million people in emerging market countries and has 11,800 employees. Brent founded AEI in 2005 with the acquisition of several emerging markets energy infrastructure companies. For his achievements at AEI, Brent was selected as one of the final nominees in the Texas area for Ernst and Young's prestigious "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Prior to AEI, Mr. de Jong was responsible for more than US$1 billion of investments at the Ashmore Group since 2002 and successfully restructured more than 25 financially distressed companies.
Mr. de Jong is also a Board Member of Brenco, a Brazilian ethanol production company and Sea Production, a company specializing in floating-production storage and off-loading of oil. Mr. de Jong is a member of the Board and avid supporter of Schools for Children of the World, which has developed a national school infrastructure plan in Honduras and has developed demonstration projects throughout rural Central America and East Africa.
Brent has been involved in a variety of competitive sports since youth, including competitive triathlons. Mr. de Jong first started triathlons while attending university and has in the last few years focused on the sport again, averaging 2 triathlons per since. He has competed as a Clydsedale at the World Championships for Olympic distance in Cancun in 2005 and completed the UK Ironman race in 2006 where he finished in under 12 hours.
Brent is married and has 4 children. While the family resides in Houston, Texas, extended family members reside throughout the world, including Perú and the Netherlands. The family is very dedicated to competitive sports, including his wife, Mariella, who was an All-American SEC tennis player for Mississippi State University. Brent signed up for the CEO Challenge given the opportunity to compete with peers (those that have similarly hectic schedules - which limits training), beautiful location and support of the program. He views the CEO Challenge and other Ironmen events as a goal that motivates training and his interest in staying fit.
Competition Age Group: 39 and Under
