title: Reinhard Houben
text: # Reinhard Houben
  
  Reinhard Houben (born 29 April 1960) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017.
  
  ## Early life and career
  
  Houben graduated in business administration in Siegen in 1983 with a degree in business administration. Since 1984 he has been managing partner of Arnold Houben GmbH, a medium-sized trading company in Cologne’s Rodenkirchen district.
  
  ## Political career
  
  Houben has been a member of the FDP since 1983. On a local level, he served on the city council of Cologne from 1989 until 1994 and from 2009 until 2017.
  
  Houben became a member of the Bundestag in the 2017 German federal election. Since January 2018, he has been a member of the Committee for Economic Affairs and Energy, where he is his parliamentary group’s spokesperson on economic policy.
  
  In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 German elections, Houben was part of his party's delegation in the working group on economic affairs, co-chaired by Carsten Schneider, Cem Özdemir and Michael Theurer.
  
  ## Other activities
  
  * Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), Member of the Advisory Board
  * Koelnmesse, Member of the Supervisory Board (2014-2018)
  