Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office

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30 May 1963 Born in Hofheim am Taunus (Hesse)

Married to Claudia Hardt, Protestant, one daughter

1981
Joined the CDU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)

1982
Obtained university entrance qualification at Taunus-Gymnasium in Königstein/Ts.

1982-1986
Officer candidate and naval officer (sub-lieutenant); ship security officer and technical diver (frigate Augsburg)

1986-1993
Studied economics in Heidelberg and Cologne; dissertation in Cologne under Professor Watrin on regulatory aspects of the 1992 pension reform

1987-1989
Federal Chairman of the Association of Christian Democratic Students

1990
Member of the German team at the 1990 World Sailing Championships (Tornado class)

1992-1998
CDU party headquarters; Head of the social policy department; Head of Secretary-General Peter Hintze’s office

1999-2001
CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag; European policy desk officer

2001-2009
Head of Corporate Communications at Vorwerk: PR/media work for the family-owned Vorwerk company (total workforce worldwide approx. 578,000, including 22,300 employees; volume of business 2.437 billion euros; active in 58 countries); received 2005 German PR Award for the “Family manager of the year” initiative

Since 2003
District Chairman of the CDU Wuppertal

2004-2009
Member of Wuppertal City Council; Chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs; Member of the Supervisory Board of Wuppertaler Stadtwerke

Since Nov. 2005
Deputy Chairman of the CDU in the Bergisches Land region

Since 2009
Member of the German Bundestag

Since May 2014
Federal Foreign Office Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation in the Field of Intersocietal Relations, Cultural and Information Policy

• Full member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Substitute member of the Defence Committee
• Substitute member of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union
• Member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
• Member of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
• Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• Working group on municipal affairs of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group
• Member of the group representing employees' interests within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group

Since September 2015
Foreign Policy Spokesman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag