Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent is an American politician, investor, and hedge fund manager. A member of the Republican Party, Scott Bessent has served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury since January 28, 2025. Over several decades, he has been active in global financial markets, specializing in macroeconomic investment strategies. He is the founder of the global macro investment firm Key Square Group and a former partner at Soros Fund Management.

Scott Bessent was born on August 21, 1962, in Conway, South Carolina, United States. His family is of French Huguenot descent. His mother is Barbara McLeod, and his father was real estate broker Homer Gaston Bessent Jr.. He was raised as the eldest of three children. His South Carolina roots played a lasting role in shaping both his personal identity and his later political connections.

Scott Bessent pursued his higher education at Yale University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984. During his university years, he was actively involved in academic and social life, serving as an editor at Yale Daily News and as president of the Wolf’s Head Society. He also chaired the Yale Class of 1984 Alumni Fund and worked as an assistant in the university’s athletic department.

After graduation, Scott Bessent entered the financial sector, beginning his career with an internship under renowned investor Jim Rogers. He subsequently worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and Kynikos Associates. In 1991, he joined George Soros’s investment firm Soros Fund Management, where he became a partner during the 1990s and later assumed leadership of the firm’s London office.

Scott Bessent played a key role in one of the most notable events in modern financial history: the 1992 collapse of the British pound, known as “Black Wednesday.” During this period, the Soros team generated profits exceeding 1 billion U.S. dollars. He also contributed significantly to the firm’s high-risk but successful investments in the Japanese yen in 2013.

In 2000, Scott Bessent left Soros Fund Management and launched a hedge fund managing approximately 1 billion U.S. dollars, which closed in 2005. He later served as a senior investment advisor at Protégé Partners. In 2011, he returned to Soros Fund Management and worked as chief investment officer until 2015, when he departed again to establish his own firm.

In 2015, Scott Bessent co-founded Key Square Group with Michael Germino. The firm adopted a global macro investment strategy centered on geopolitical analysis. At its launch, the company received an anchor investment of approximately 2 billion U.S. dollars from George Soros. By the end of 2017, assets under management reached 5.1 billion U.S. dollars.

Over time, the firm’s performance proved volatile. While a 13 percent return was achieved in 2016, the period from 2017 to 2021 saw notable losses. Although gains returned in 2021, 2022, and 2023, assets under management declined to 577 million U.S. dollars by 2023. In 2018, the firm returned Soros capital under a prearranged agreement.

Beyond finance, Scott Bessent has also been active in academia. From 2006 to 2011, he served as an assistant professor of economic history at Yale University, teaching courses on 20th-century economic cycles and the history of hedge funds.

Throughout his political life, Scott Bessent has supported various political candidates. In 2000, he hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore at his home in East Hampton, New York. He later donated to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2016, he contributed 1 million U.S. dollars to Donald Trump’s presidential committee. During 2023 and 2024, he donated more than 1 million U.S. dollars in total to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

In 2024, Scott Bessent hosted high-profile fundraising events in Greenville, South Carolina, and Palm Beach, Florida, and emerged as one of Trump’s key economic advisers. He proposed a three-point economic plan inspired by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Three Arrows” economic policy.

On November 22, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent for the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury. Following Senate confirmation, he assumed office on January 28, 2025. With this appointment, he became the first openly gay U.S. Treasury Secretary and the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ official to serve at the cabinet level in U.S. history.

As Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent has defended tariff policies in hearings before the Senate Finance Committee, supported the extension of tax cuts, and called for tougher economic policies toward China and Russia. His economic agenda emphasizes growth, industrial production, and fiscal discipline.

In his personal life, Scott Bessent resides in Charleston, South Carolina. He is affiliated with the Huguenot Church, to which his ancestors contributed in its construction in 1680. His spouse is former New York prosecutor John Freeman, and the couple has two children. According to a financial disclosure filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on December 28, 2024, Scott Bessent’s net worth is at least 521 million U.S. dollars.

Scott Bessent is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in contemporary American economic governance, distinguished by his long-standing career in global finance, his macroeconomic investment strategies, and his role as United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Source: Biyografiler.com