Rex Wayne Tillerson was born on March 23,1952 and is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th US secretary of state from February 1,2017, to March 31,2018, under President Donald Trump.
93 Facts About Rex Tillerson
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Rex 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.
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In 1995 he became president of Exxon Yemen Inc and Esso Exploration and Production Khorat Inc In 2006 Rex Tillerson was elected chair and chief executive of ExxonMobil, the world's sixth-largest company by revenue.
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Rex Tillerson is a longtime volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America and earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
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Rex Tillerson is a longtime contributor to Republican campaigns, but did not donate to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
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In 2014, Rex Tillerson, who had made business deals on behalf of ExxonMobil with Russia, opposed the sanctions against Russia.
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Rex Tillerson has previously been the director of the joint United States-Russia oil company Exxon Neftegas.
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An unconventional choice for the role, Rex 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.
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Rex Tillerson was replaced by Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo.
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Rex Tillerson was raised in Vernon, Texas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; and Huntsville, Texas.
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Rex Tillerson has two sisters, Rae Ann Hamilton, a physician who resides in Abilene, Texas, and Jo Lynn Peters, a high school educator.
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Rex Tillerson's father was an executive of the Boy Scouts of America organization, and this led to his family's move to Huntsville.
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Rex 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.
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Rex Tillerson 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.
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Rex Tillerson received a college scholarship from the University of Texas Longhorn Band.
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Rex Tillerson received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975.
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Rex Tillerson joined Exxon Company USA in 1975 as a production engineer.
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In 1989, Rex Tillerson became general manager of the central production division of Exxon USA.
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Rex Tillerson then entered Exxon into the Sakhalin-I consortium with Rosneft.
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On January 1,2006, Rex Tillerson was elected chairman and CEO, following the retirement of Lee Raymond.
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In 2017, Congress voted to overturn Rule 1504 one hour before Rex Tillerson was confirmed as Secretary of State.
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On January 4,2017, The Financial Times reported that Rex Tillerson would cut his ExxonMobil ties if he became Secretary of State.
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Rex Tillerson was responsible for the development of a partnership between Exxon and state-owned oil company Rosneft and the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to acquire a stake in Yukos, owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, before the firm was nationalized after Khodorkovsky's arrest.
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John Hamre, the president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, of which Rex Tillerson is a board member, says Rex Tillerson "has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American, with the exception of Henry Kissinger".
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Rex Tillerson was a friend of Igor Sechin, the executive chairman of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, and leader of the Kremlin's Siloviki faction, who has been described as "Russia's second-most powerful person" after Putin.
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Rex Tillerson led Sechin on a tour of New York City, dining on caviar with him and Putin at Per Se restaurant.
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Rex Tillerson began drilling in the Kara Sea in the summer of 2014, and a round of sanctions against Russia introduced in September that year due to the Russo-Ukrainian War was to have brought the project to a halt in mid-September.
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In 2013, Rex Tillerson was awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin for his contribution to developing cooperation in the energy sector.
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In June 2017, Rex Tillerson said Trump had asked him to "stabilize the relationship and build trust".
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In late 2016, Rex Tillerson held $54million of Exxon stock, and had a right to deferred stock worth approximately $180million over the next ten years.
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When he left Exxon, Rex Tillerson was four months away from retirement, at which time he would have been entitled to a $180million retirement package.
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Rex Tillerson owns two ranches in Texas, where his wife, Renda, raises cutting horses.
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On January 3,2017, ExxonMobil announced they had reached an agreement with Rex Tillerson "to sever all ties with the company to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements associated with his nomination as secretary of state".
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Rex Tillerson is a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the American Petroleum Institute.
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Rex Tillerson was a member of the executive committee of The Business Council for 2011 and 2012.
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Rex Tillerson is a long-time volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America, and from 2010 to 2012 was their national president, its highest non-executive position.
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Rex Tillerson is a Distinguished Eagle Scout, and his father was a BSA executive.
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On July 9,2017, Rex Tillerson received the Dewhurst Award from the World Petroleum Council in recognition for "outstanding contribution to the oil and gas industry" during his 41 years at Exxon Mobil.
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Rex Tillerson was first recommended to president-elect Trump for the secretary of state role by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, during her meeting with Trump in late November 2016.
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Rex Tillerson's nomination was reportedly advocated by Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.
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Rex Tillerson was sworn in on the same day by Vice President Mike Pence.
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The number of votes against Rex Tillerson's confirmation was unusual for a Secretary of State, as the previous record for votes against a nominee for Secretary of State had been fourteen.
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On February 15,2017, Rex Tillerson embarked on his first overseas trip as Secretary of State, to Bonn, Germany, for a meeting with foreign ministers from the G20.
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In Bonn, Rex Tillerson had meetings with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, as well as his counterparts from Italy, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
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When meeting with Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray Caso of Mexico, Rex Tillerson acknowledged differences between the US and Mexico on views of border security, but acknowledged the need for cooperation in addressing migration, as well as arms trafficking.
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Rex Tillerson recused himself from TransCanada's application for a presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
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The next day, Fox News criticized Abrams, and Rex Tillerson soon told Abrams he would not be nominated.
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In mid-March 2017, Rex Tillerson made his first trip to Asia, traveling to Japan, South Korea, and China.
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Rex Tillerson remarked that diplomatic efforts in the past twenty years to stop North Korea's nuclear development had "failed".
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On March 30,2017, Rex Tillerson met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
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Rex Tillerson said the administration would await the outcome of an investigation before taking further action.
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In mid-April 2017, Rex Tillerson made his first trip to Russia as Secretary of State, meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin.
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Rex Tillerson warned Russia of the risk of "becoming irrelevant in the Middle East" by continuing to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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In May 2017, Rex Tillerson joined Trump on the president's first overseas trip, to Saudi Arabia.
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In June 2017, Rex Tillerson excluded Myanmar, Iraq, and Afghanistan from the list of countries that employ child soldiers in that year's Trafficking in Persons Report, rejecting the unanimous recommendations of staff.
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Staff then circulated a memo in their Dissent Channel alleging that Rex Tillerson's decision was in violation of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act.
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Rex Tillerson froze most hiring and sought to remove 2,000 career diplomats by offering them $25,000 buyouts.
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In June 2017, Rex Tillerson told graduates of the Rangel and the Pickering foreign affairs fellowships that their offers to join the United States Foreign Service were rescinded, and that they needed to repay the $85,000 scholarships or agree to work in temporary positions.
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Rex Tillerson reversed that decision and allowed the graduates to become full Foreign Service Officers after being asked to do so by 31 members of Congress.
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Rex Tillerson selected Margaret Peterlin to be his chief of staff.
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Rex Tillerson is reported to have relied heavily on Peterlin, as well as his chief of policy, Brian Hook.
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Rex Tillerson attempted to centralize much decision making under the Policy Planning Staff.
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Rex Tillerson initiated the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, focusing on the Department of State's organizational structure.
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Rex Tillerson contracted for management consulting from Deloitte and hired Insigniam to conduct a "listening tour" survey for $1million.
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Rex Tillerson attempted to reduce inefficiencies within the Department of State, though it was described as a "botched reorganization" that created a hollowed-out and dysfunctional department, reportedly leading to micromanagement and poor morale among career diplomats, yet Rex Tillerson was praised by one writer for setting the right tone for diplomats.
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In November 2017, Rex Tillerson said that recent Rohingya persecution in Myanmar was ethnic cleansing.
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Rex Tillerson made a concerted effort to respond to the Department of State's backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests that reached into Secretary Hillary Clinton's tenure, assigning midlevel diplomats from every bureau to perform document review beside unpaid interns.
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On March 13,2018, Rex Tillerson commented on the nerve gas poisoning in the United Kingdom of a former Russian spy and his daughter, calling it a "really egregious act" that clearly "came from Russia".
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Additionally, there were well-sourced reports of Rex Tillerson offering to resign his office as Secretary of State, only to be discouraged from doing so by Vice President Mike Pence; however, these were officially denied both by Rex Tillerson and by the White House.
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Rex Tillerson was reportedly angered by the political speech President Trump delivered at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree.
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In May 2019, Rex Tillerson privately discussed with members of Congress his frustration that during his tenure Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner conducted discussions with foreign dignitaries without advising the Department of State.
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In one instance, Rex Tillerson entered a Washington restaurant and was asked by the owner if he wanted to meet with the Mexican foreign minister, who was dining with Kushner in the back of the restaurant; Rex Tillerson was unaware the foreign minister was in Washington.
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Trump later told reporters his differences with Rex Tillerson came down to personal chemistry and disagreements on policy, adding that he and CIA director Mike Pompeo "have a very similar thought process".
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Rex Tillerson is the only secretary of state since at least 1945 to have been fired.
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Trump made similar remarks again in May 2019 after Rex Tillerson reportedly said Trump had been outmaneuvered in a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
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Trump had previously lauded Rex Tillerson, describing him as a "one of the truly great business leaders of the world" and a "world class player and dealmaker".
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In March 2017, Robert Jervis of Columbia University wrote that Rex Tillerson "had little impact on the Trump administration so far" and that his influence would continue to wane.
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That same month, William Inboden of the University of Texas at Austin defended Rex Tillerson, saying he deserves more time.
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Elliot Cohen of Johns Hopkins University said Rex Tillerson might be one of the weakest secretaries of state in American history.
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Elizabeth Saunders of George Washington University said Rex Tillerson's tenure had damaged the Department of State "for a generation" and decreased America's ability to respond to major crisis.
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In 2014, Rex Tillerson expressed opposition to the sanctions against Russia in response to the annexation of Crimea at an Exxon shareholder meeting.
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In 2017, Rex Tillerson said Russia's annexation of Crimea was illegal.
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Rex Tillerson compared China's controversial island-building in the South China Sea to Russia's annexation of Crimea.
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In 2010, Rex Tillerson said that while he acknowledged humans were affecting the climate through greenhouse gas emissions to some degree, it was not yet clear "to what extent and therefore what can you do about it".
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At the 2020 Argus Americas Crude Summit, Rex Tillerson further expressed doubt that humans could do anything to combat climate change.
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In September 2013, Rex Tillerson wrote an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal defending Common Core.
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Rex Tillerson has contributed to the political campaigns of George W Bush, as well as Mitt Romney in 2012, and Mitch McConnell.
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Rex Tillerson donated to Jeb Bush's campaign during the 2016 Republican primaries.
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Rex Tillerson divorced Jamie Lee Henry, his first wife, with whom he has twin boys.
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In 1986, Rex Tillerson married Renda St Clair, who has a son from her previous marriage.
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Rex Tillerson is a Congregationalist who holds a membership in the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, a mainline Reformed denomination.
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In 2015, Rex Tillerson was named as the 25th-most-powerful person in the world by Forbes.
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On May 16,2018, Rex Tillerson gave a graduation speech at Virginia Military Institute.