Rex Tillerson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rex Tillerson (2017)

Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952 in Wichita Falls , Texas ) is an American manager and politician . The longtime President and CEO of the oil company ExxonMobil was Secretary of State of the United States in the Trump cabinet from February 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 .

Life

Tillerson and his wife Renda are members of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches .

Professional background

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering , Tillerson joined Exxon as an engineer in 1975. He then held various positions at Exxon. In 1995 he became President of Exxon Yemen Inc. and Esso Exploration & Production Khorat Inc.

Tillerson as head of ExxonMobil with Russian President Vladimir Putin , 2012

In 1998, Tillerson took over the position of Vice President of Exxon Ventures (CIS). In the same year he became President of Exxon Neftegas Limited and was responsible for its operations in Russia . From 1999, the year the Exxon and Mobil merged, he was Vice Chairman of the ExxonMobil Development Company . In 2001 he became President of ExxonMobil Corporation . On January 1, 2006, Tillerson took over from his predecessor Lee Raymond as CEO of ExxonMobil.

Tillerson negotiated and signed a contract in 2011 that gives ExxonMobil access to oil and gas reserves under the Russian Arctic and in return enables the large Russian state oil company Rosneft to participate in ExxonMobil's projects in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas. Under Tillerson, the company was active in states such as Chad and Equatorial Guinea , whose governments were accused of being autocratic and violating human rights.

US Secretary of State

In mid-December 2016, Donald Trump , then- elected President of the United States , announced his decision to propose Tillerson as Secretary of State for his cabinet . Observers initially suspected that Tillerson had been chosen because of his good business contacts to improve relations, particularly with Russia. Observers saw potential conflicts of interest in the fact that Tillerson was CEO of ExxonMobil, an investor in Russia, for several years, although sanctions against Russia have been in place since the previous government. Tillerson negotiated a multi-million dollar resignation package with ExxonMobil in December 2016; the company announced that it would cut all financial ties to avoid conflicts of interest.

Tillerson as Foreign Minister with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in February 2017

With Senate approval , Tillerson succeeded John Kerry on February 1, 2017 . In the Senate, 56 senators voted for him and 43 against him. He received the votes of all 52 Republicans and four Democrats.

At the beginning of his tenure in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he pushed for a sharp reduction in staff through layoffs and a de facto hiring freeze with far-reaching consequences for the work of the ministry. In March 2017, Tillerson informed his ministry that Trump wanted to cut its budget by almost 30 percent.

After Tillerson had been perceived as largely ineffective and sidelined in the first few weeks, at the same time as an interventionist change of course in President Trump's foreign policy in April 2017 (see his order on air strikes in Syria ), he became one of his most frequent interlocutors with a great influence on this Government action on Syria, Russia and China. With the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement , which Trump announced on June 1, 2017, Tillerson suffered a defeat; he had advocated staying.

Tillerson's authority was often undermined by Trump's later uncoordinated course changes, making Tillerson's ministerial post one of the most vulnerable in Trump's cabinet and speculation about his replacement or resignation. Trump embarrassed him on October 1, 2017 with two tweets in which he addressed his North Korea policy. Tillerson has never denied calling Trump a moron in a heated session on America's nuclear arsenal in October 2017. On March 9, Tillerson announced that it was neither “realistic” nor “prudent” to hold talks with Kim Jong-un . A few hours later, Trump announced that he was ready to meet with Kim Jong-un to discuss a suspension of missile tests and the North Korean nuclear program. On March 12, 2018, Tillerson described Russia as an “irresponsible force for instability in the world” and a day later condemned the poison attack on Sergei Skripal as a “truly monstrous act” by Russia. Hours later, Trump fired Tillerson and nominated former CIA director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state. Trump also fired Tillerson's Secretary of State Steve Goldstein .

After the term of office

After his tenure as Secretary of State, Tillerson expressed criticism of current politics and the president on several occasions. On May 16, 2018, in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute , Tillerson reflected on the political situation in the United States by diagnosing a "growing crisis of ethics and integrity" and warned of the consequences if American leaders engage in trivial matters would no longer stick to the truth (go wobbly on the truth) : Then democracy in the USA will enter its “ twilight years” . This was interpreted as a criticism of President Trump in particular. In early December 2018, Tillerson declared that Trump was undisciplined and did not share his value system. In office he had to point out to the President again and again that his suggestions and ideas violated the law. Trump then described Tillerson on Twitter as " dumb as a rock " and "lazy as hell" (lazy as hell) .

Positions

As an Exxon board member, Tillerson described climate change as an "engineering problem" in 2012 and suggested that farmers find new areas to grow crops . After Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and the US ( Obama administration ) imposed sanctions on Russia, Tillerson criticized the sanctions as they would slow Exxon's investments there.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Rex Tillerson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Steve Coll : Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Allen Lane, London 2012, ISBN 9781846146596 ; HonorRoll: Distinguished Individual Donors . In: The Congregationalist, September 2013, p. 7, accessed on February 2, 2017 (pdf, 4 MB; English).
  2. ↑ Christian Esch: Exxon beats BP in the Arctic . ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Frankfurter Rundschau , September 1, 2011; Julian Borger: Rex Tillerson: an appointment that would confirm Putin's US election win. In: The Guardian , December 11, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mobil.fr-online.de
  3. ↑ Under Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil Forged Its Own Path Abroad. In: The New York Times , December 13, 2016.
  4. ^ A b Veit Medick : Trump's Foreign Minister Tillerson: The Russia Commissioner. In: Spiegel Online , December 13, 2016.
  5. ^ Rex Tillerson, Exxon CEO, Chosen as Secretary of State. In: The New York Times , December 12, 2016.
  6. ^ Rex Tillerson: $ 180 million settlement for the new US Secretary of State. In: Zeit Online , January 4, 2017.
  7. ↑ Majority in Senate: Rex Tillerson confirmed as US Secretary of State. In: Spiegel Online , February 1, 2017.
  8. ^ Present at the Destruction: How Rex Tillerson Is Wrecking the State Department. In: Politico , June 29, 2017.
  9. ^ Tillerson tells State Department employees that budget cut reflects new priorities. In: The Washington Post , March 16, 2016.
  10. ↑ Annie Karnie: Tillerson's stock rises in the White House. In: Politico , April 15, 2017.
  11. ^ Max Greenwood: Winners and losers in Trump's Paris decision. In: The Hill , June 2, 2017.
  12. ^ Nahal Toosi: Against the odds, Tillerson hangs on - for now. In: Politico , January 24, 2018 (English).
  13. ↑ Uninhibitedly exposed. In: FAZ.net , October 2, 2017.
  14. ↑ Tensions escalate after Tillerson calls Trump 'moron'. In: CNN.com , October 4, 2017.
  15. ↑ Rex Tillerson said talking to Kim Jong Un wouldn't be 'realistic' or prudent yet. Hours later, Trump said he'd do it. In: The Washington Post , March 9, 2018.
  16. ↑ Abigail Williams, Rachel Elbaum: Tillerson says UK spy poisoning 'clearly' came from Russia. In: NBC News , March 13, 2018.
  17. ↑ Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker: Trump ousts Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Pompeo. In: The Washington Post , March 13, 2018.
  18. ↑ sueddeutsche.de
  19. ↑ Rex Tillerson is just the latest Trump aide to speak out after getting fired. In: The Washington Post , May 18, 2018.
  20. ↑ Matthew Choi: Trump calls Tillerson 'dumb as a rock' and 'lazy as hell'. In: Politico , 7 December 2018.
  21. ↑ Exxon CEO calls climate change engineering problem. In: Reuters , June 27, 2012.
  22. ↑ Mark Hertsgaard: Climate Change: The End of Pasta. In: Zeit Online . December 18, 2012, accessed January 20, 2015 .
  23. ↑ David E. Sanger , Maggie Haberman, Clifford Krauss: Rex Tillerson, Exxon Chief, Is Expected to Be Pick for Secretary of State. In: The New York Times , December 10, 2016.
  24. ↑ Andreas Ross: Trump and Putin: An Order of Friendship from Vladimir. faz.net , December 11, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Tillerson, Rex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tillerson, Rex Wayne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American manager
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Wichita Falls , Texas