Tanja Gönner was born in Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, in 1969. She has served as CEO of the BDI since mid-November 2022.

After completing her training as a certified judicial officer in the higher judicial service, she studied law at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and, following the completion of her first and second state law exams, completed her legal clerkship at the Ravensburg Regional Court.

From 1996 to 1999, Tanja Gönner worked at a law firm. After being admitted to the bar, she became a partner there in 1999, specializing in insolvency law (until 2004).

From 2002 to 2004, Tanja Gönner served as a member of the German Bundestag. In 2004, she became Minister of Social Affairs for the state of Baden-Württemberg. In 2005, she took over the Ministry of the Environment, which she headed until early 2010. From February 2010 to May 2011, Tanja Gönner served as Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Transportation of the State of Baden-Württemberg, and from 2011 to 2012, she was a member of the State Parliament. From 2012 to 2022, she served as Spokesperson for the Executive Board of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH.

She also engages in a number of volunteer activities. Among other things, she is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, the German Committee for UNICEF, the Supervisory Board of the Liebenau Foundation, and the Executive Board of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Tanja Gönner has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany since 1987 and served on the CDU’s Federal Executive Board from 2000 to 2012.