cnn
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Here's a look at the life of former US Secretary of State and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.
Birthdate: March 23, 1952
Place of birth: Wichita Falls, Texas
Birth name: Rex Wayne Tillerson
Father: Boy Scouts of America executive Bob Tillerson
Mother: Patty (Patton) Tillerson
Marriage: Renda (St. Clair) Tillerson
Children: Four children
Education: University of Texas at Austin, B.S., 1975
Tillerson and his wife, Renda, run a horse ranch in Texas called Bar RR Ranches.
Tillerson, an Eagle Scout, served as president of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 2010 and 2011. As a member of the BSA executive board, he helped advocate for the inclusion of gay youth in the Scouts. The organization revoked its ban on gay scouts in 2013, and four years later, the BSA opened its membership to transgender youth. While Tillerson has a reputation as a BSA reformer, he has been criticized by gay rights groups because, under his leadership, Exxon continued to resist calls to implement policies that would protect LGBTQ employees from harassment. In 2015, the company added sexual orientation and gender identity to its equal opportunity policy.
1975 – He joins Exxon as a production engineer.
1987-1989 – Business development manager for Exxon's domestic natural gas department.
1989-1992 – General manager of regional oil and gas production.
1992 – Production advisor for Exxon Corporation.
1992-1995 – Affiliated gas sales coordinator for Exxon Company, International.
nineteen ninety five – He becomes president of Exxon Yemen and other overseas subsidiaries.
1998 – President of Exxon Ventures and Exxon Neftegas in Russia.
1999 – He becomes executive vice president of Exxon Development Company.
1999 – Exxon Corp and Mobil Corp complete their merger.
2001-2003 – Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil.
2004 – He becomes president of ExxonMobil and a member of the company's board of directors.
2006 – He is named president and CEO of ExxonMobil.
2013 – He receives the Order of Friendship award from Russian President Vladimir Putin. During Tillerson's tenure as CEO of ExxonMobil, the company invested in oil production in Siberia, the Arctic Circle and the Black Sea.
December 13, 2016 – President-elect Donald Trump's transition team announces that Tillerson has been nominated for secretary of state. Tillerson was recommended for the position by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. His consulting firm, RiceHadleyGates LLC, has a contract with ExxonMobil.
December 14, 2016 – Tillerson announces he will retire from ExxonMobil at the end of December.
January 11, 2017 – During his confirmation hearing, Tillerson is questioned about his ties to Russia and what he will do to promote human rights abroad. In response to a question about global warming, Tillerson says she believes climate change is a serious problem.
February 1, 2017 – Tillerson is confirmed by the Senate by 56 votes in favor and 43 against. All Republicans voted for it, while most Democrats voted against it. Later that night, Tillerson is sworn in as secretary of state.
February 15, 2017 – Tillerson arrives in Germany on his first trip abroad. He represents the United States at the G20 summit in Bonn.
February 22 and 23, 2017 – Tillerson visits Mexico with Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. They make the trip to meet with Mexican diplomats amid tensions over border issues and new immigration policies. Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico's president, canceled a planned January trip to Washington to meet with President Trump over a dispute over a proposed border wall and Trump's campaign promise that Mexico would pay for the structure.
February 24, 2017 – The State Department announces that it will resume holding regular press conferences on March 6. Under previous administrations, the department took questions from reporters daily, but the briefings were suspended after Trump took office on Jan. 20.
March 14-19, 2017 – Tillerson makes his first trip to Asia, stopping in China, Japan and South Korea. During the visit, Tillerson declares that a new approach is needed to counter North Korea's provocations.
March 20, 2017 – Officials told Reuters that Tillerson will not attend a NATO meeting in April, skipping the event so he can participate in talks with Trump and President Xi Jinping of China at Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. Officials also say the secretary of state is planning a trip to Russia in late April.
October 2017 – NBC reports that Tillerson called Trump an “idiot” during a meeting at the Pentagon. Tillerson refuses to confirm or deny the allegation.
March 13, 2018 – He is fired by Trump.
December 7, 2018 – Tillerson calls Trump “undisciplined” during an interview with former CBS News journalist Bob Schieffer. “When the President said, 'This is what I want to do and this is how I want to do it.' And I would have to say to him, 'Well, Mr. President, I understand what he wants to do, but he can't do it that way.' He breaks the law. It violates the treaty,'” Tillerson says.
May 21, 2019 – Tillerson meets with Democratic Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel and ranking Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and their senior staff for an interview that focuses primarily on his time in the Trump administration.
January 11, 2021 – In a lengthy interview published in Foreign Policy, Tillerson paints a scathing picture of Trump as someone who made uninformed decisions that were not based in reality. “His understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of American history was really limited. “It's really difficult to have a conversation with someone who doesn't even understand the concept of why we're talking about this,” Tillerson said in the interview conducted just before the US Capitol insurrection.
