An unconventional choice for the role, 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.

[19][20] He has two sisters,[21] Rae Ann Hamilton, a physician who resides in Abilene, Texas,[22] and Jo Lynn Peters, a high school educator.

[18] Under Tillerson's leadership, ExxonMobil cooperated closely with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and a longtime U.S. ally, as well as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

[8] They have been associates since Tillerson represented Exxon's interests in Russia, the world's largest producer of crude oil, during Russian president Boris Yeltsin's tenure.

[39] Tillerson was a friend of Igor Sechin,[41][42][43] the executive chairman of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, and leader of the Kremlin's Siloviki (security/military) faction,[44][better source needed] who has been described as "Russia's second-most powerful person" after Putin.

[18] In August 2011, Putin attended a ceremony in Sochi where Tillerson and Sechin signed an agreement between ExxonMobil and Rosneft to drill the East-Prinovozemelsky field in the Arctic Ocean valued at up to $300 billion.

[46][47] 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.

[40] The company 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.

[48][49] Nevertheless, the company was granted a reprieve that stretched the window to work until October 10, which enabled it to discover a major field with about 750 million barrels of new oil for Russia.

[50] In July 2017, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control fined ExxonMobil $2 million for violating sanctions in its dealings with Sechin, leading the company to sue the government.

[18] 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".

According to Center for Strategic and International Studies president John Hamre, Tillerson was instrumental in the change and "a key leader in helping the group come to a consensus".

[69][71] On July 9, 2017, 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.

[74] On December 9, transition officials reported that Tillerson was the top candidate for the position, surpassing contenders such as Mitt Romney and David Petraeus.

[18] There, Tillerson contradicted the president's criticism of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, advising Trump of Exxon's success in refusing a bribe demand by Yemen's oil minister.

[95] In May, protestors and Erdoğan's bodyguards clashed outside of the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. Tillerson said the incident was "outrageous" and that the Trump administration has expressed "dismay" over it.

[96] In mid-April 2017, Tillerson made his first trip to Russia as secretary of state, meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin.

[100] In June 2017, 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.

[118] 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.

[106] On March 13, 2018, 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".

[18] After leaving the Trump administration, Tillerson spoke to Bob Schieffer about his tenure: "It was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented Exxon Mobil corporation .

[141] Trump later told reporters his differences with Tillerson came down to personal chemistry and disagreements on policy, adding that he and CIA director Mike Pompeo "have a very similar thought process".

[153] Daniel W. Drezner of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University was highly critical of Tillerson, calling him an "unmitigated disaster",[154][155] and "the most incompetent secretary of state in modern history".

[157] Elizabeth Saunders of George Washington University said Tillerson's tenure had damaged the Department of State "for a generation" and decreased America's ability to respond to major crises.

[13] In October 2017, Politico reported that Tillerson's major foreign policy positions include "urging 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, taking a neutral position in the dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and reassuring jittery allies, from South Korea and Japan to our NATO partners, that America still has their back".

[164] During his secretary of state confirmation hearings, Marco Rubio asked Tillerson if he would label Saudi Arabia as a "human rights violator".

Replacing the hodge-podge of current, largely ineffective regulations with a revenue-neutral carbon tax would ensure a uniform and predictable cost of carbon across the economy ... allow market forces to drive solutions ... maximize transparency, reduce administrative complexity, promote global participation and easily adjust" to new knowledge in climate science and in the policy consequences of various courses of action.

[187] Following his appointment as secretary of state, Tillerson bought a home in Kalorama, Washington, D.C.[188] He is a Congregationalist who holds a membership in the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, a mainline Reformed denomination.

[191][192] On February 20, 2014, news outlets reported that Tillerson and his wife had joined opponents of a proposed water tower that could lead to fracking-related traffic near their homes.

[196] "If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.