Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent (/ˈbɛsənt/ BESS-ənt; born August 21, 1962) is an American businessman and government official serving since 2025 as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury. He was formerly a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM) and founded Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.

Bessent graduated from Yale College in 1984. In 1991, he was hired by Soros Fund Management, eventually becoming the head of its London office. While serving in that role in September 1992, he was a leading member of the group that profited by $1 billion on Black Wednesday, the British pound sterling crisis. In 2013, he made another $1.2 billion profit for SFM betting against the Japanese yen. After leaving the Soros Fund in 2015, Bessent established Key Square Group, a hedge fund.

Bessent served as an economic advisor, fundraiser, and major donor for the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign. On November 22, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his nomination of Bessent for U.S. treasury secretary in the second Trump administration. Bessent was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 27, 2025, by a 68–29 vote, and sworn in as the 79th U.S. treasury secretary on January 28, 2025.

Bessent is the third openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Richard Grenell and Pete Buttigieg). As the U.S. secretary of the treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession, he is the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ person ever to serve in the federal government of the United States.

Bessent was born on August 21, 1962, in Conway, South Carolina, the oldest of three children of Barbara (née McLeod) and Homer Gaston Bessent Jr., a real estate agent. His mother married five times and his father went bankrupt after bad real estate investments. He is of French Huguenot and Scottish descent. He has a younger sister, Paige; his other younger sister, Wyn, died in 2022 after an illness. Some journalists have claimed that John Jenrette, a member of the United States House of Representatives convicted of accepting a bribe in the FBI's Abscam sting operation, was Bessent's uncle.

Bessent had a summer job as a busboy at age 9. In 1980, he graduated from North Myrtle Beach High School in Little River, South Carolina. He considered attending the United States Naval Academy in Maryland but decided not to as he was unwilling to lie about his sexual orientation.

In 1984, Bessent received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science from Yale University. He was on the board of the Yale Daily News, acted as president of Wolf's Head Society, and was treasurer for the class of 1984. He was chairman of the 1984 Yale Alumni Fund and an assistant to the director of athletics.

Bessent secured an internship with Jim Rogers after meeting him at a Yale Career Center event. After graduation, Bessent worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and then for Jim Chanos at Kynikos Associates. He joined Soros Fund Management (SFM) in 1991, eventually becoming head of the London office. In 1992, Bessent was a leading member of the team whose bet on the Black Wednesday collapse of the British Pound sterling earned the firm over $1 billion. Some sources, such as Forbes, describe Bessent as having been a "protégé" of George Soros, SFM's founder.