Tillerson will need to change course at state

New York

REX Tillerson, who sealed big oil deals and developed close ties with foreign leaders around the globe as head of ExxonMobil, will have to firmly change course to serve as America's top diplomat.

Mr Tillerson, 64, has been chief executive of the world's biggest publicly-traded oil company since 2006, and spent a career going where the hydrocarbons are.

That has often meant negotiating with autocrats, and navigating in politically unstable countries or those with poor human rights records.

Mr Tillerson's level of comfort with foreign leaders is a major source of his appeal to US President-elect Donald Trump, but it is certain to draw scrutiny during his Senate confirmation hearing.

"I have a very close relationship with President Vladimir Putin," Mr Tillerson said in February at the University of Texas at Austin. "I don't agree with everything he is doing, but he understands that I'm a businessman. My company invested a lot of money in Russia very successf…