 Brant attended the University of Colorado but did not graduate instead leaving to work for his father's company.Brant went to work at Brant-Allen Industries, a paper conversion company co-founded by his father, Murray Brant.In the early 1970s, Brant and a cousin, Joseph Allen — the son of Murray Brant's business partner — led the company into the manufacturing side of the business and expanded the company into paper mill (converting pulp into paper) ownership purchasing a mill in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec and partnering with the Washington Post and Dow Jones to purchase a mill in Ashland, Virginia.