WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Mike Pompeo, now head of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to replace Rex Tillerson to serve as the country's new secretary of state.

Pompeo's nomination is now waiting confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

The following is a profile of the CIA chief.

Pompeo was born in Dec. 30, 1963 in the U.S. state of California, and graduated first in his class from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he majored in Mechanical Engineering in 1986.

In 1994 Pompeo received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

He was elected as the member of the House of Representatives on 2011, where he stayed until 2017. He was a member of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party.

On Nov. 18, 2016, Trump nominated Pompeo to lead the CIA, and was sworn in as head of the agency in January, 2017.

Pompeo was widely known for his hawkish position on security issues. He was a fierce critic of the Iran nuclear deal, proposing more sanctions to curb the country's ballistic missile program when he was in Congress.

He also opposed closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and supported enhancing the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency.

On the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, Pompeo has been consistently tough.

Over the recent development of the situation in the Peninsula, Pompeo told U.S. television network CBS earlier this month that the Trump administration "has its eyes wide open and the whole time this conversation takes place, the pressure will continue to mount" on Pyongyang.

"There is no relief in sight until the president gets the objective that has set forth consistently during his entire time in office," he added.