Inside the mind of Kevin Warsh: As told by his former boss Condoleezza Rice, his college friend, and his closest partner during the financial crisis

The first time former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice encountered Kevin Warsh was in the 1980s when she was an associate professor of political science at Stanford University and he was an undergraduate. She knew he would go on to do something special. Admittedly, this isn’t an unusual phenomenon—it’s Stanford, after all.However, by the fourth or fifth time Warsh knocked on her door in hopes of securing an audience during office hours, Rice realized Warsh wasn’t just bright; he was unusually determined—even by elite academia standards.“He was persistent,” Rice told Fortune in an exclusive interview. “Kevin’s one of those people who demands more of himself than others could ever.”

Any insight into the enigma that is Warsh, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, is of use to Wall Street and economists around the world. Warsh’s voice sets the tone CEOs listen to before making their biggest borrowing bets, that foreign investors study for details on the trajectory of the U.S. economy, and that consumers rely on to strengthen the value of their wallets.

Warsh’s tentative first steps in the role are being scrutinized perhaps more than any Fed chair in history. His appointment comes after unprecedented political attacks on the Fed from the White House during the second Trump administration, leading many to fear he is either the Oval Office’s “sock puppet” or lacks the backbone to stand up for vital Fed independence. Wall Street analysts also lament his stance on forward guidance (or lack thereof), saying its reduction undoes transparency at the central bank.

Everyone wants to know what Warsh is thinking, though Trump’s nominee has made it clear he’s not yet ready to show his cards. But a handful of people know how Warsh thinks. Those who have orbited his inner circle say Warsh’s depthless curiosity, strong interpersonal skills, and his ability to build accord have primed him to step into the central bank at what is, by his own definition, a moment “among the most consequential in our nation’s history.”

“I think he’s very well equipped in terms of his native abilities and the way he relates to people,” Donald Kohn, former Governor and later Vice Chairman of Governors at the Federal Reserve, tells Fortune. “He’s acquired a lot of economics over the years in the Fed and at Hoover, hanging out with some very good economists.”

The native New Yorker has won over cynics before, his peers tell Fortune. And while his CV now boasts the gongs expected of a central bank chairman, it’s his social fluency that could see the Fed emerge from a battering political storm stronger than it entered.

Few people have worked with Warsh as consistently as his mentor and close friend Rice—indeed, he told the Senate Banking Committee hearing during his confirmation trial that it is unlikely he would be sitting before them without the guidance of Rice, who now serves as Hoover Institution director.

The duo met as student and teacher, and became peers in D.C. Rice was the national security advisor to President George W. Bush from 2001 until she became his Secretary of State in 2005, while Warsh........

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