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Rex Wayne Tillerson was born on March 23, 1952, in Wichita Falls, Texas. His parents named him after Rex Allen and John Wayne, two Hollywood actors famous for playing cowboys. He was raised in Vernon; Texas, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and Huntsville, Texas. Tillerson's father Bobby Joe Tillerson was an executive of the Boy Scouts of America organization and Rex Tillerson has been active in the Boy Scouts for most of his life. As a boy he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. At 14 he worked as a bus boy in the student union building at Oklahoma State University. Two years later in 1968 he worked as a janitor in one of the engineering buildings at the University and on weekends he earned extra money picking cotton. He graduated from Huntsville High School and received a college scholarship from the University of Texas because of his proficiency as a musician in his high school band. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975.
Tillerson joined Exxon in 1975 as a production engineer. In 1989, he became general manager of the central production division of Exxon USA and in 1995, he was promoted to 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.
In 1999, Exxon and Mobil merged and Tillerson was named executive vice president of ExxonMobil Development Company. In 2004, he became president and director of ExxonMobil. On January 1, 2006, Tillerson was elected chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). He was in charge of a multinational company that had 80,000 employees, doing business in nearly 200 countries, with an annual revenue of nearly $400 billion.
Tillerson's duties took him into a lot of international business dealings at a high level. Under his leadership, ExxonMobil established a close working relationship with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and a longtime U.S. ally, as well as with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. From 2003 to 2005, a European subsidiary of ExxonMobil called Infineum, operated in the Middle East providing sales to Iran, Sudan and Syria. Under Tillerson's leadership, Exxon negotiated a multibillion-dollar deal with the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, despite opposition from President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
One of the considerations that led to Tillerson making the short list of potential secretaries of state was his familiarity with Russia and its political and business leadershop. Tillerson and President Vladimir Putin of Russia have known each other from the time that Tillerson represented Exxon's interests in Russia. Tillerson was responsible for the development of a partnership between Exxon and state-owned oil company Rosneft. Exxon had tried unsuccessfully to acquire a stake in Yukos,an oil company owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, before the firm was nationalized after Khodorkovsky's arrest. Some estimate that Tillerson has spent more time with Vladimir Putin than almost any other American. Tillerson was a friend of Igor Sechin, the Executive Chairman of Rosneft. Sechin is also the leader of the Kremlin's Siloviki (the security/military faction). In August 2011, Putin attended a ceremony in Sochi where Tillerson and Sechin signed an agreement between ExxonMobil and Rosneft for drilling in Russia in the Arctic Ocean, a deal worth around $300 billion. The Rosneft deal also gave the state-owned oil company a 30% stake in Exxon owned assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Canada, and West Texas. In 2013, Tillerson was awarded the Order of Friendship by Vladimir Putin for his contribution to developing cooperation in the energy sector. In June 2017, Tillerson said that President Trump had asked him to "stabilize the relationship and build trust.
On January 3, 2017, ExxonMobil announced they had reached an agreement with Tillerson "to sever all ties with the company to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements associated with his nomination as secretary of state." Tillerson was first recommended to then-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. Rice's recommendation of Tillerson was supported by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, three days later. On January 20, 2017, shortly after being sworn-in as President of the United States, President Trump formally sent his nomination of Tillerson as Secretary of State to the United States Senate. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Tillerson's nomination 11–10, a strict party line vote, on January 23, 2017. The Senate confirmed Tillerson as Secretary of State on February 1, 2017. The Senate voted 56 to 43, with all 52 Republicans in support of his nomination as well as 3 Democrats and 1 independent. He was sworn-in on the same day
On February 15, 2017, Tillerson made his first overseas trip as Secretary of State to Bonn, Germany, meeting with foreign ministers from the G20. In Bonn, 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. Tillerson called on Russia to withdraw from eastern Ukraine. Tillerson also reaffirmed U.S. commitment to defending South Korea and Japan.
Tillerson visited Mexico on February 23, 2017, traveling with Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly. Topics of discussion included differences between the U.S. and Mexico on views of border security, as well as cooperation in addressing migration, as well as arms trafficking. In mid-March 2017, Tillerson made his first trip to Asia, traveling to Japan, South Korea, and China. Tillerson stated that diplomatic efforts in the past 20 years to stop North Korea's nuclear development had failed. He said the United States may need to take preemptive action, stating "if North Korea takes actions that threatens the South Korean forces or our own forces, then that would be met with an appropriate response. If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe that requires action, that option is on the table."
On March 30, 2017, Tillerson met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey. In mid-April 2017, he made his first trip to Russia as Secretary of State, meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Putin. At a news conference, Tillerson said that US-Russian relations were at a "low point." He also criticized Russia for its continuing to support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In May 2017, Tillerson joined President Trump on the President's first overseas trip to the middle east. The first stop on the tour was Saudi Arabia, where Tillerson held a joint press conference with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir.
President Trump's 2018 United States federal budget sought to reduce the State Department’s budget by 31%. Tillerson froze most hiring and made plans to remove 2,000 career diplomats by offering them $25,000 buyouts. He rescinded offers made to graduates of the Rangel and the Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowships to join the United States Foreign Service, making them repay the $85,000 scholarships or agree to work in temporary positions. Tillerson later reversed that decision and allowed the graduates to become full Foreign Service Officers after being asked to do so by 31 members of Congress. Tillerson has initiated the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which deals with the State Department's organizational structure. He has attempted to reduce inefficiencies within the State Department.
In October 2017, news reports alleged that the relationship between Tillerson and President Trump was deteriorating. The reports allege that in a July 20 meeting, the President suggested a ten-fold increase in the United States nuclear arsenal at a cost of trillions of dollars. It was reported that after the meeting Tillerson referred to the President as a "moron". It was also reported that Tillerson offered to resign his office as Secretary of State, only to be discouraged from doing so by Vice President Mike Pence. These rumors were officially denied by both Tillerson and by the White House. On October 1, Trump directly contradicted Tillerson's policy of negotiation with North Korea on Twitter. On October 10, after Tillerson's alleged "moron" comment was reported in the media, Trump challenged Tillerson to take an IQ test. The President's public disparagement of his Secretary of State was criticized by Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee, the Chair of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
At present, only 10 of the top 44 political positions in the State Department have been filled. A large amount of Senior Foreign Service officers have resigned under Tillerson, with the number of career ambassadors and ministers dropping nearly 50%, from 39 to 19.
In October 2017, it was reported that Tillerson wants the United States to stay in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate accord, taking a hard line on Russia, advocating negotiations and dialogue to defuse the mounting crisis with North Korea, advocating for continued U.S. adherence to the Iran nuclear deal.
Rex Tillerson has been married twice. He divorced his first wife, with whom he is a parent to twin boys. In 1986 Tillerson married Renda St. Clair, who has a son from her previous marriage. Tillerson also has a son, born in 1988, with St. Clair. Tillerson's twin sons are engineers and hold their bachelor's degrees from the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.