Rex Tillerson will relinquish control of a quarter-billion dollar nest egg amassed over four decades at Exxon Mobil Corp. to avoid a conflict of interest during his confirmation hearings to become U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state. 
 
 If confirmed, the former Exxon chairman and chief executive officer will convert about 2 million deferred shares to cash that will be surrendered to an independently managed trust, the company said in a statement dated Tuesday. Tillerson also will sell more than 600,000 shares he already owns in North America’s largest oil explorer, abandon $4.1 million in cash bonuses he would have been paid over the next three years and take a $3 million haircut on the restricted stock payout. 
 
 The most important business stories of the day. Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter. 
 
 To avoid a conflict of interest with the multinational corporation he joined in 1975 and led for 11 years starting in 2006, Tillerson needed to work out a resolution for the deferred compensation package that typically ties former executives’ personal fortunes to Exxon’s performance for a decade after they retire. Exxon’s board said it consulted with federal ethics officials to ensure the agreement severing Tillerson’s ties to the company was sound. 
 
 Tillerson’s agreement with Exxon might mean he has to recuse himself from decisions that would affect the company for two years -- double the length of the usual recusal period. That’s because Exxon’s compensation policies barred accelerated payments of unvested shares -- and the company made an exception in Tillerson’s case. Under ethics rules, if a company changes its policy to pay $10,000 or more to an employee nominated for government service, the recusal time doubles. 
 
 Such recusals typically require that “you remove yourself from the chain of command of anything that would affect your former company,” said Stan Brand, an attorney and government-ethics expert at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Exxon explores for oil and natural gas on six continents. 
 
 Tillerson’s confirmation hearing before U.S. senators may begin as soon as next week. The 64-year-old Texan is no stranger to Capitol Hill, having testified before congressional inquiries in the past decade on topics as diverse as gasoline prices and the Deepwater Horizon disaster. 
 
 Tillerson stepped down as Exxon chairman and CEO on Jan. 1 and was succeeded by refining chief Darren Woods. The company typically retains the services of ex-CEOs post-retirement to benefit from their long-standing relationships with foreign oil ministers, political leaders and dignitaries. 
 
 By cutting ties with Exxon, Tillerson is also eschewing post-employment perks such as a private office and administrative support enjoyed by his predecessor and mentor, Lee Raymond. Tillerson spent his entire professional career at the Irving, Texas-based company that traces its roots to the 1880s and John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust. 
 
 Tillerson directly owns 611,087 shares of Exxon, worth about $55.5 million according to Bloomberg calculations based on Tuesday’s close in New York. He has an additional 2.026 million restricted shares, worth $184 million. 
 
 His severing of his relationship with Exxon isn’t unique -- nor is it the largest such separation in recent U.S. history. In 2006, before his confirmation as U.S. Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Hank Paulson agreed to sell his $485 million stake in the investment firm. 
 
 “He can’t get rid of the fact that he’s a former Exxon executive,” said Brand, the government-ethics specialist. “What he can do is remove all his financial holdings in the company, like Paulson did with Goldman Sachs. That’s what Tillerson’s doing. It’ll give him a clean bill of health.” ||||| FILE - In this Friday, March 27, 2015, file photo, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson delivers remarks on the release of a report by the National Petroleum Council on oil drilling in the Arctic, in Washington.... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Friday, March 27, 2015, file photo, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson delivers remarks on the release of a report by the National Petroleum Council on oil drilling in the Arctic, in Washington.... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — Rex Tillerson, the nominee of President-elect Donald Trump for secretary of state, is severing ties with Exxon Mobil through a $180 million retirement package one week before his Senate confirmation hearing begins. 
 
 Tillerson will surrender, if confirmed, all unpaid stock that was part of his pay package, more than 2 million shares. In exchange, the company will make a cash payment equal to the value of those shares to a trust to be overseen by a third party, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 
 
 Because of the way the compensation is being dispensed, Tillerson will give up about $7 million, compared with what he would have been paid had he retired in March as he had planned to do before the nomination. 
 
 Tillerson, who worked for Exxon for more than 40 years, would have reached the company's mandatory retirement age of 65 by March, after which he would have received the payout from Exxon over a period of 10 years. 
 
 If Tillerson returns to the oil and gas industry within 10 years, the money in the trust would be paid out to charities of the controlling trustee's choosing. 
 
 With the appointment of Tillerson as secretary of state comes a host of thorny conflict-of-interest issues. The placing of the funds into a trust is intended to allay concerns that decisions made by Tillerson as a member of the Trump cabinet could help him or his former associates. 
 
 Darren Woods, a 25-year Exxon veteran who had served as the company's president, took over as CEO of Exxon Mobil at the start of the new year. 
 
 Tillerson began his career at Exxon as a production engineer straight out of the University of Texas at Austin in 1975. He replaced longtime CEO Lee Raymond in 2006 and led the company during one of the most turbulent periods in its history, which included the 2008 financial crisis and a collapse in oil prices since mid-2014 that has sharply diluted Exxon's profits. ||||| IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The board of directors of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) has reached an agreement with Rex W. Tillerson, former chairman and chief executive officer, to sever all ties with the company to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements associated with his nomination as secretary of state. 
 
 Under the agreement developed in consultation with federal ethics regulators, if Tillerson is confirmed as secretary of state, the value of more than 2 million deferred ExxonMobil shares that he would have received over the next 10 years would be transferred to an independently managed trust and the ExxonMobil share awards would be cancelled. 
 
 The trust would be prohibited from investing in ExxonMobil and the trustee would manage the assets consistent with government ethics rules. Payments to Tillerson from the trust would be subject to the same 10-year schedule that the cancelled awards would have had if they had continued in place. 
 
 Tillerson would also surrender entitlement to more than $4.1 million in cash bonuses, scheduled to pay out over the next three years, and other benefits such as retiree medical and dental benefits, and administrative, financial and tax support. 
 
 The one-time payment to the trust would be equal to the value of Tillerson’s cancelled shares based on a volume-weighted average price per share. Consistent with guidance from federal ethics regulators, the value would be reduced by about $3 million. 
 
 The trust would include forfeiture rules that would prohibit Tillerson from working in the oil and/or gas industry during the 10-year payout period. 
 
 The trust rules dictate that in the event of forfeiture, the money would be distributed to one or more charities involved in fighting poverty or disease in the developing world. Neither Tillerson nor ExxonMobil would have any control over the selection of the charities. 
 
 The net effect of the agreement is a reduction of approximately $7 million in compensation owed to Tillerson. Tillerson retired on Dec. 31 with more than 40 years of service with ExxonMobil. 
 
 Separate to the agreement with ExxonMobil, Tillerson has also committed to the State Department that, if confirmed, he would sell the more than 600,000 shares in ExxonMobil he currently owns. 
 
 About ExxonMobil 
 
 ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources and is one of the world’s largest integrated refiners, marketers of petroleum products and chemical manufacturers. For more information, visit www.exxonmobil.com or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/exxonmobil ||||| Rex Tillerson committed to sell the more than 600,000 Exxon share he currently owns. | Getty Tillerson, Exxon set conflict-of-interest agreement 
 
 Oil giant ExxonMobil announced late Tuesday it had reached an agreement with secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson over the hundreds of millions of dollars he's owed from the company. 
 
 Under the deal that Exxon said was developed with ethics regulators to comply with conflict of interest requirements that Tillerson sever all ties with the company, the former chairman and CEO would see the value of the more than 2 million deferred shares that he is owed put into an independently managed trust, and the share awards would be canceled. At current market prices, those shares are worth more than $180 million. 
 
 And Tillerson committed to sell the more than 600,000 Exxon share he currently owns, which are currently valued at nearly $55 million. 
 
 The former oil executive would give up more than $4.1 million in cash bonuses that are scheduled to pay out over the next three years, as well as other benefits such as retiree medical and dental benefits, and administrative, financial and tax support. And he would give up about $3 million in the value of his shares at the establishment of the trust. 
 
 The trust would include forfeiture rules that prohibit Tillerson from working in the oil and gas industry for a decade. 
 

– Rex Tillerson will take a $180 million retirement deal and make a complete break from ExxonMobil if confirmed as secretary of state. In a deal announced Tuesday, Exxon says the former oil executive who resigned on Dec. 31 will sell his 611,000 shares of Exxon, worth about $55.5 million, and receive the value of a little over 2 million restricted shares, now worth about $184 million, in an independently managed trust, reports Bloomberg. Tillerson would have received the 2 million shares over a decade had he reached Exxon's mandatory retirement age of 65 in March, reports the AP. In total, he'll lose about $7 million, including $4.1 million in cash bonuses and benefits he would've received over the next three years, per Politico. Tillerson also agrees not to work in the oil and gas industry for 10 years; if he breaks that condition, the money in the independent trust will be given to "one or more charities involved in fighting poverty or disease in the developing world" without input from Tillerson or Exxon, the company says, adding Tillerson will "sever all ties with the company to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements associated with his nomination as secretary of state."