E6 inspired supersymmetric extensions of the standard model provide the
most elegant solution to the mu-problem of the the minimal
supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), contain extra tree level
contributions that raise the Higgs mass, exotic phenomenology and are
well motivated from high scale physics. I will review these very
interesting models, explaining the structure of the electroweak symmetry
breaking and predictions for the masses, which turn out to be rather
rigid in the models previously considered, suggesting very heavy,
multi-TeV sparticles. I will then discuss the status of such models in
terms of the primary motivations for supersymmetry: gauge coupling
unification, dark matter and naturalness with particular focus on the
latter. Finally I will discuss a special class of these models with a
mechanism that relaxes the very rigid structure, allowing lighter
spectra and potentially opening up a new Higgs decay channel into light
pseudoscalars.
