Rex Tillerson

Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952 in Wichita Falls, Texas) is an American businessman and is the chairman, president, and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation. Under Tillerson's leadership Exxon acquired XTO Energy. Exxon has tied with Apple Inc. and Google to be one of the top three largest public companies by market value.

Education

Rex Wayne Tillerson was born on March 23, 1952 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1965. In 1970, he graduated from Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975. During his time at UT Austin, he was involved with the Tejas Club,Longhorn Band, and Alpha Phi Omega. In 2006 he was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate.

Business career

Tillerson joined The Exxon Company, US, in 1975 as an engineer. He held various positions with Exxon, domestically and internationally. In 1995, he became 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, with the merger of Exxon and Mobil, he was named Executive Vice President of ExxonMobil Development Company. In 2004, he became president and director of Exxon Mobil and on January 1, 2006, he was elected chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), following the retirement of Lee Raymond. Tillerson is also a trustee for the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the American Petroleum Institute, and is a member of the Business Roundtable.

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800.

The house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia Creek sandstone in the Neoclassical style. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage. However, in 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (/ˈpuːtɪn/; Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn], born 7 October 1952) has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012, succeeding Dmitry Medvedev. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During his last term as Prime Minister, he was also the chairman of United Russia, the ruling party.

For 16 years, Putin was an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin easily won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was reelected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. In March 2012, he won the election, which was criticized for procedural irregularities, and is serving a six-year term.

Secretary of State

Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government.

In many countries, a Secretary of State is a mid-level post. It is usually a politically appointed position, although in some countries, such as Germany and Sweden, it can be filled by a member of the executive bureaucracy (civil service) as a political appointment. In the Holy See, there is one Secretary of State, who coordinates all the departments of the Roman Curia (that is, equivalent to a Prime Minister). In the United Kingdom a Secretary of State is a member of the Cabinet appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister (that is, equivalent to a Minister). In the Federal Government of the United States of America, there is one Secretary of State, the most senior political appointee responsible for foreign policy (that is, equivalent to a Foreign Minister).

Foreign minister

A Foreign Minister or Minister of Foreign Affairs is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations.

World contexts

Difference in titles

In some nations, such as India, the Foreign Minister is referred to as the Minister for External Affairs or, as in the case of Brazil and of the former Soviet Union, as the Minister of External Relations. In the United States the equivalent to the foreign ministry is called the Department of State, and the equivalent position is known as the Secretary of State. Other common titles may include minister of foreign relations. In many Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries in Latin America, the foreign minister is colloquially called canciller (chancellor).

Powers of position

A foreign minister's powers can vary from government to government. In a classic parliamentary system, a foreign minister can potentially exert significant influence in forming foreign policy but when the government is dominated by a strong prime minister the foreign minister may be limited to playing a more marginal or subsidiary role in determining policy. Similarly, the political powers invested in the foreign minister are often more limited in presidential governments with a strong executive. Since the end of World War II, it has been common for both the foreign minister and defense minister to be part of an inner cabinet (commonly known as a national security council) in order to coordinate defense and diplomatic policy. Although the 19th and early 20th centuries saw many heads of government assume the foreign ministry, this practice has since become uncommon in most developed nations.