Jeff Miller (American businessman)


Jeff Miller is an American oil executive. He is the chief executive officer, president, and chairman of the board of Halliburton, an oil field service company with operations in over 70 countries.

Early life and education

Jeffrey Allen Miller was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1964. He attended the St. Mark's School of Texas, graduating in 1982. While at St. Mark's, Miller became interested in rodeo, ultimately earning a rodeo scholarship to McNeese State University. Miller competed briefly in professional rodeo roping before attending Texas A&M University, where he received his Masters in Business Administration.

Career

After receiving his MBA, Miller worked as a certified public accountant at Arthur Andersen, the now defunct accounting firm. Miller moved to Halliiburton in 1997. During his early years at Halliburton, Miller worked in oil field operations in Venezuela, Angola, Indonesia, and Dubai. He moved to Houston in 2010 to assume executive roles in the company, including Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Miller was named President in 2014, CEO in 2017, and Chairman of the Halliburton Board on January 1, 2019.

Controversies

Miller has assumed increasing responsibilities at Halliburton while the company has faced a series of controversies. Miller was the company's president in 2015, when Halliburton—in the face of the oil downturn—terminated 35,000 jobs.
As a world leader in fracking, the company faces ongoing criticism regarding its ecological impact. The company has operations in over 70 countries, leading to inevitably complex relationships with foreign governments. Criticisms of Halliburton range from Iraqi War profiteering to the 2018 controversy in which the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was accused of smoothing the path for a Montana real estate deal that would directly benefit the Halliburton CEO at the time, David Lesar. In the face of these and other federal allegations, Zinke resigned in December 2018.