Rex Tillerson, the chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation, has recently been honored by The Maguire Energy Institute at the Cox School of Business-Southern Methodist University.
On January 14th, Rex Tillerson was awarded the L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership award during a ceremony at the Cox School’s Collins Center. Tillerson was selected by the Energy Leadership Award committee to commemorate his work, leading ExxonMobil for more than four decades of growth. Tillerson is lauded for representing the spirit of entrepreneurship and leadership that define the award’s namesake, late oilman L. Frank Pitts.
Tillerson, a native of Wichita Falls, achieved his Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin. Until 1989, he worked as a production engineer with the Exxon Company, eventually becoming general manager of the company’s central production division. In 1992, Tillerson was named production adviser to the Exxon Corporation. By 2004, he was elected president of the corporation, assuming his current position two years later.
“The Institute is proud to honor Rex Tillerson with this prestigious award,” said director of the Maguire Energy Institute, Bruce Bullock, “As CEO of the largest publicly-traded oil company in the world, Rex has been a transformative leader for our industry and for ExxonMobil. His efforts…deliver outstanding returns to shareholders no matter the price environment, and push the envelope of new technologies for the future.”
Tillerson is the sixth honoree to receive the L. Frank Pitts Energy Award, which was first awarded to Hunt Oil Company CEO and chairman Ray L. Hunt in 2010. The award was created at that time to honor L. Frank Pitts, a Texas oilman and independent oil and natural gas producer. Pitts was involved in the drilling of over 3,000 wells over seven decades. Pitts formerly served as a member of the Maguire Energy Institute Advisory Board, and his daughter- Linda Pitts Custard- is an SMU Cox alumna and former member of the SMU Board of Trustees.