Since 2009, Werner Hoyer has served as Germany’s minister of state at the Foreign Office. From 2002-2009, he was deputy chairman and spokesman on foreign affairs for the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the Bundestag. Minister Hoyer twice served as deputy chairman of the German-U.S. Parliamentary Friendship Group. He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1987, serving as FDP chief whip from 1989-1993 and FDP spokesman on security affairs from 1990-1994. Prior to joining the Bundestag, Minister Hoyer was a senior research assistant in economics and an associate lecturer for foreign trade at Cologne University. He earned his Ph.D. in economics at Cologne University in 1977.