No Press? No Problem: Tillerson’s CEO Secrecy

Rex Tillerson is rewriting the rules for what it means to be secretary of state. His ideas for conducting diplomacy track closely with beliefs shaped during his 40-year career at Exxon Mobil Corp., where negotiations happened behind closed doors, leaks could cost millions of dollars in shareholder value, and the press was seen as a nuisance. Case in point: Tillerson’s staff handpicked just one reporter, from the Independent Journal Review, a conservative website, to join him on his plane during his recent trip to Asia.

“We have some very, very complex strategic issues to make our way through with important countries around the world, and we’re not going to get through them by just messaging through the media,” Tillerson told IJR. “We get through them in face-to-face meetings behind closed doors.”