Thirty years before Scott Bessent was appointed to lead the U.S. Treasury Department, he was involved in a mission to destabilize the financial system of another country.

At the age of 29, Bessent, working for financier George Soros, helped orchestrate the collapse of the British pound in what became known as Black Wednesday. He was part of a small team at Soros’s investment firm that, in 1992, placed a massive $10 billion bet against the pound, believing it was overvalued.

Despite the British government’s efforts to stabilize the currency, the pound’s value plummeted. Soros’s fund reaped over $1 billion in profits and earned widespread notoriety for one of the most daring and successful trades in Wall Street history.

When President-elect Donald Trump announced Bessent’s appointment as Treasury Secretary last week, the connection to Soros was not mentioned. However, Bessent’s experience at Soros’s firm — including another high-profile trade against the Japanese yen — played a significant role in shaping his career, and many of his former colleagues view it as a key qualification for his new role.

David Smick, who advised Soros during the bet against the pound, remarked that Bessent had a unique ability to spot vulnerabilities in financial systems that others couldn’t see.

At 62, Bessent has spent nearly four decades as a trader and chief investment officer, managing hedge funds and running his own firm. However, his recent years have been less successful. His most recent hedge fund, Key Square Capital, raised $4.5 billion in 2016, including $2 billion from Soros, but now manages much less. Similarly, another fund he ran in the early 2000s had lackluster performance, which Bessent attributed to starting with the wrong investment strategy.

Though Bessent had been friends with Trump’s family for years, he only reconnected with the president-elect last year. Former colleagues praise Bessent’s deep knowledge of financial markets, history, and economic crises, believing it will be invaluable in guiding the Treasury Department, which is responsible for managing the U.S. economy and overseeing fiscal policy. His role will include issuing government debt, advocating for Trump’s tax reforms, and leading economic negotiations with major global powers like China.

Bessent will also need to navigate the complexities of Trump’s trade policies, particularly how tariffs could impact the economy, the dollar, and the federal deficit. Last week, Trump threatened to increase tariffs on Chinese imports and impose new tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

While Bessent’s former colleagues view him as apolitical, he has supported Trump’s trade policies. In a recent Fox News essay, he argued that tariffs could benefit the Treasury by raising revenue, protecting domestic industries, and serving as a bargaining chip in international trade negotiations.

Kieran Cavanna, a hedge fund manager who worked with Bessent at Soros’s firm, praised Bessent’s ability to understand the “butterfly effect” — how events in one part of the world could ripple through other markets. For example, Bessent could recognize how a development in China might impact U.S. agriculture, steel, or the price of U.S. Treasuries.

Despite these strengths, some questioned how Bessent’s background would translate to leading a massive agency like the Treasury, with its 100,000-plus employees. His past experience primarily involved deep dives into financial data and mentorship, rather than managing large teams or navigating political complexities.

At Soros Fund Management, where Bessent served as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015, he oversaw about 320 employees, including 120 investment professionals — his largest managerial responsibility to date.

Bessent is the second Treasury Secretary pick under Trump to have worked with Soros, despite the stark ideological differences between the liberal philanthropist and the president-elect. Steven Mnuchin, the first Treasury Secretary, briefly worked with Soros in the early 2000s but did not overlap with Bessent.

Bessent began his career in finance after graduating from Yale in 1984, where he later taught economics and investment courses. He worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and managed money for a Saudi family before joining Soros’s firm in 1991.

Soros sent Bessent to London, where he studied housing data. He discovered that few British homeowners held fixed-rate mortgages, meaning that an interest rate hike by the Bank of England would raise costs for homeowners during an economic downturn.

At the time, the British pound was pegged to the German mark, and the Bank of England maintained this exchange rate by buying or selling pounds. When Soros and his chief investment officer, Stanley Druckenmiller, considered betting against the pound, Bessent’s understanding of the British economy gave them the confidence to challenge the Bank of England. By raising interest rates to defend the pound, the Bank would have exacerbated the cost of mortgages for millions of Britons.

Bessent’s insights were critical in allowing Soros’s team to place a $10 billion bet, which ultimately earned over $1 billion in profits in just a few weeks.

The consequences were far-reaching: The British government lost billions, and Prime Minister John Major’s government was severely damaged, leading to his eventual resignation.

In 2000, Bessent left Soros to start his own hedge fund, Bessent Capital, which had mixed results. He briefly retired in 2005, returning investors’ money and closing the fund.

Bessent returned to Soros’s firm in 2011, where he again found success, making another high-profile bet — this time against the Japanese yen. In 2012, after meeting with an adviser to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Bessent predicted that Japan’s efforts to end its deflationary slump would weaken the yen and boost Japanese stocks. This trade brought in around $1 billion in profits.

While at Soros’s firm, Bessent was known for generating solid returns, consistently exceeding 20 percent annually. However, his relationship with Soros was sometimes strained. Despite ideological differences, Bessent remained apolitical at work.

Bessent’s sudden departure from Soros Fund Management in 2015 surprised many of his colleagues, some of whom were working closely with him on major trades at the time. Frustrated with working under Soros and his son Robert, Bessent was ready to start his own fund again.

Now, as he prepares for the challenges of leading the Treasury Department, Bessent’s history in global financial markets will undoubtedly shape his approach, but the political intricacies of his new role remain to be seen.