Thomas Jarzombek

Thomas Jarzombek (born 28 April 1973) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2009.

Jarzombek briefly studied business administration at the University of Düsseldorf but dropped out early to start his own IT service business in 1996.

From 2005 until 2009, Jarzombek served as a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

During that time, he was his parliamentary group's spokesperson on media policy.

Jarzombek first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2009 German federal election.

He has since been a member of the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure.

He has also served on the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (2009–2013) and the Committee on the Digital Agenda (2013–2017).

In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Jarzombek was part of the working group on digital policy, led Helge Braun, Dorothee Bär and Lars Klingbeil.

In June 2017, Jarzombek voted against Germany's introduction of same-sex marriage.

From 2018 until 2021 he served as Commissioner for the Digital Industry and Start-ups and Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

In 2021, Jarzombek announced his candidacy to succeed Carsten Linnemann as chair of MIT, the pro-business wing in the CDU/CSU; he ultimately lost an internal vote against Gitta Connemann.

Since the 2021 elections, Jarzombek has been a member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment and the Committee on Digitization.

In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the CDU and Green Party under Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst following the 2022 state elections, Jarzombek led his party's delegation in the working group on education.