Rex Tillerson

Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American energy executive who served as the 69th United States secretary of state from 2017 to 2018 in the administration of Donald Trump.

Tillerson was born on March 23, 1952, in Wichita Falls, Texas, the son of Patty Sue (née Patton) and Bobby Joe Tillerson, and named after Rex Allen and John Wayne, two Hollywood actors famous for playing cowboys.

He was raised in Vernon, Texas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; and Huntsville, Texas.

He has two sisters, Rae Ann Hamilton, a physician who resides in Abilene, Texas, and Jo Lynn Peters, a high school educator.

Tillerson's father was an executive of the Boy Scouts of America organization, and this led to his family's move to Huntsville.

Tillerson himself has been active in the Boy Scouts for most of his life, and in his youth he earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

At age 14, while living in Stillwater, Oklahoma, he became a busser in the student union building at Oklahoma State University and began picking cotton for work on weekends.

In 1968, two years afterward, he became a janitor of one of the university's engineering buildings.

Tillerson graduated from Huntsville High School in 1970.

He was leader for the percussion section of his high school band, in which he played the kettle drums and snare drum, and he earned spots in the all-district and all-region bands during his senior year.

Tillerson received a college scholarship from the University of Texas Longhorn Band.

Tillerson began his career as a civil engineer with Exxon in 1975 after graduating with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

He received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975.

During his time at UT Austin, he was involved with the Tejas Club (an all-male secret society) and the marching band.

Tillerson joined Exxon Company USA in 1975 as a production engineer.

By 1989 he had become general manager of the Exxon USA central production division.

In 1989, Tillerson became general manager of the central production division of Exxon USA.

In 1995 he became president of Exxon Yemen Inc. and Esso Exploration and Production Khorat Inc. In 2006 Tillerson was elected chair and chief executive of ExxonMobil, the world's sixth-largest company by revenue.

In 1995, he became president of Exxon Yemen Inc. and Esso Exploration and Production Khorat Inc.

In 1998, he became a vice president of Exxon Ventures (CIS) and president of Exxon Neftegas Limited with responsibility for Exxon's holdings in Russia and the Caspian Sea.

He then entered Exxon into the Sakhalin-I consortium with Rosneft.

In 1999, with the merger of Exxon and Mobil, he was named executive vice president of ExxonMobil Development Company.

From 2003 to 2005, a European subsidiary of ExxonMobil, Infineum, operated in the Middle East providing sales to Iran, Sudan and Syria.

In 2004, he became president and director of ExxonMobil.

Upon this appointment Tillerson's replacement of Lee Raymond as CEO of Exxon Mobil was implied.

His major competitor was Ed Galante, another Exxon executive.

From 2006 to 2016, he was chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil.

On January 1, 2006, Tillerson was elected chairman and CEO, following the retirement of Lee Raymond.

At the time, ExxonMobil had 80,000 employees, did business in nearly 200 countries, and had an annual revenue of nearly $400billion.

Under Tillerson's leadership, ExxonMobil cooperated closely with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and a longtime U.S. ally, as well as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

From 2010 to 2012, he was the national president of the Boy Scouts, its highest non-executive position.

He is a longtime contributor to Republican campaigns, but did not donate to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

In 2014, Tillerson, who had made business deals on behalf of ExxonMobil with Russia, opposed the sanctions against Russia.

He has previously been the director of the joint United States-Russia oil company Exxon Neftegas.

Tillerson retired from ExxonMobil effective January 1, 2017.

Tillerson is a longtime volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America and earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

Tillerson became Secretary of State on February 1, 2017.

An unconventional choice for the role, Tillerson's tenure was characterized by a lack of visibility in comparison to his predecessors in the traditionally high-profile position of Secretary of State.

During Tillerson's tenure, new applications to work for the Foreign Service fell by 50 percent, and four of the six career ambassadors as well as 14 of the 33 career ministers, equivalent to military four- and three-star generals, departed.

After their relationship deteriorated, Trump dismissed Tillerson in March 2018, and was replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.