Tillerson, Rex Wayne, 1952–, American business executive and government official, b. Wichita Falls, Tex., B.S. Univ. of Texas, Austin, 1975. He joined the Exxon Corp. in 1975 as a production engineer, and from the mid-1980s held various management positions with the company, including with Exxon subsidiaries in Yemen, Thailand, and Russia. Following the company's merger with Mobil Corp. (1999), he become executive vice president of ExxonMobil Development Co. in 1999, president and director of ExxonMobil in 2004, and chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil in 2006. As chairman, he moved ExxonMobil away from its long-time position of challenging the reality of climate change, though the company continued to support opposition to measures intended to address the issue. He retired in 2016. Noted for his friendly relations with Russian government officials as a result of ExxonMobil's operations in Russia, Tillerson became secretary of state in 2017 under President Trump, but he only served a year before he was replaced with Mike Pompeo.
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