| Scott Bessent | |
| Birth Place: | Conway, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Education: | Yale University (BA) |
Scott Bessent (born 1962) is an American investor, philanthropist, and educator.[1] [2] [3] [4] He is the founder of Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.[5] [6] [7] [8]
Bessent was born in Conway, South Carolina.[9] [10] He attended Yale College, graduating in 1984.[11] [12] While at Yale, Bessent wrote for The Yale Daily News, was President of Wolf's Head Society and Treasurer for the class of 1984.[13]
Bessent was previously the Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management, the $30 billion family office of billionaire George Soros.[14] [15] [16] From 2006 to 2011, Bessent was an adjunct professor of economic history at Yale, where he taught three courses.[17] The Daily Beast included his 2010 class in its listing of “Hottest College Courses.”[18]
Bessent first joined Soros Fund Management (SFM) in 1991 and was a partner there throughout the 1990s. At the age of 29, he was asked to head SFM's London office.[19] [20]
According to Sebastian Mallaby's history of hedge funds, More Money Than God, Bessent's analytics played a key role in helping George Soros and Stan Druckenmiller construct SFM's wager against the British pound, which netted the firm a profit of $1 billion.[21] [22] [23]
In addition to heading the London office, Bessent served as SFM's head of global research and co-head of external manager selection.2,3,5,16 He also directly managed $1.5 billion of the firm's capital.[24]
After resigning from SFM in 2000, Bessent founded a $1 billion hedge fund, which he converted to a family office in 2005. He was also a senior investment advisor at fund-of-funds Protégé Partners.
Bessent was in the process of starting a new fund in the summer of 2011 when George Soros asked him to return to SFM as CIO.
Bessent served as the Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management from 2011 to 2015.[25] Under Bessent's leadership, the firm made a profit of $10 billion.[26]
In August 2015, it was announced that Bessent would be leaving Soros Fund Management to start his new firm, Key Square Group, with $2 billion of George Soros's money.
Bessent founded Key Square Group with Michael Germino, who had been the Global Head of Capital Markets at SFM. A number of the pair's former colleagues from SFM followed them to Key Square.
Key Square received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros. By the end of its first quarter of operation, Key Square was managing $4.5 billion.
At the end of 2017, Key Square's assets were $5.1 billion. Bloomberg in May 2018 reported that Key Square had mostly outperformed rival macro managers and continued to generate significant investor interest. As part of a pre-arranged deal, the firm gradually returned the Soros capital as it took in other assets. Its investors include Australia's sovereign wealth fund.
Bessent has been active at his alma mater, Yale University, where he sits on the University Council. He and his sister donated the Bessent Library to Yale in honor of their father, H. Gaston Bessent, Jr.[27] Bessent has also endowed three scholarships at Yale, including one for students who are first-generation college matriculants, one for students from South Carolina, and one for students from the Bronx.
Bessent previously served on the board of God's Love We Deliver, an organization founded to deliver meals for homebound people with AIDS.[28] He is a supporter of The Harlem Children's Zone, where he has chaired their annual dinner and mentors recent graduates.[29]
Bessent currently serves on the board of trustees of Rockefeller University, where he chairs the Investment Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee.[30] He is vice-chair of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, and a former board member of the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.[31] Bessent is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Bessent resides in Charleston, South Carolina.[32]
Bessent is a supporter of Donald Trump and was a co-chair at a Republican fundraiser for the former President in Palm Beach, Florida.[33]
Steven Drobny, "The Stock Operator: Scott Bessent," Inside the House of Money
Sebastian Mallaby, More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite