Werner Hoyer takes office as EIB President on January 1, 2012

Werner Hoyer’s appointment as President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has been confirmed by the Governors of the EIB - the 27 Ministers of Finance of the European Union - and the Bank’s Board of Directors. Mr Hoyer will take office as EIB President on January 1, 2012. 

Werner Hoyer will be the seventh president of the EIB since it was founded in 1958. He succeeds Philippe Maystadt who leaves after 12 years in the post. Werner Hoyer is Minister of State at the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, responsible for European policy, and a Member of the German Parliament (Bundestag). He also is Germany’s Commissioner for Franco-German cooperation.

Germany, as one of the EIB’s major shareholders, has one permanent seat in the Bank’s Management Committee. Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen, Vice-President since 2006, has tendered his resignation.

Werner Hoyer, born in 1951 in Wuppertal, Germany, holds a PhD in economics from Cologne University where he started his career as a senior research assistant in economics. He became associate lecturer for foreign trade before moving to the Carl Duisberg Society as Director of the Economics and Information Department. Werner Hoyer was elected to the Bundestag in 1987. From 1993 to 1994 he was Secretary General of the FDP (Free Democratic Party). He also served as European affairs minister in the last government of Helmut Kohl from 1994 to 1998.