laid the foundation for the sustainable and employment intensive recovery that took off in 2005. The labor and welfare reforms have been credited with reducing unemployment and contributing to Germany's growth years. However, the reforms led to a rift between the left and centrist sections of the SPD, driven by oppositions from the trade unions and social organizations, ultimately resulting in the split Germany's center-left, and led to the creation of the far-left party Die Linke and significantly weakened the SPD. Following the 2005 elections, Angela Merkel was elected Chancellor on 22 November 2005, and Clement was replaced by Michael Glos. On 31 July 2008, Clement was expelled from the SPD by the Landesschiedskommission (i.e. State arbitration board) of NRW after making a statement in which he advised against voting for the SPD. Clement went to the superior Bundesschiedskommission (Federal arbitration board) which subsequently cancelled the verdict on 24 November 2008. On 25 November, Clement announced his decision to leave the party. He went on to support the Free Democratic Party led by Christian Lindner, but did not join the party. Life after politics After leaving politics, Clement held various paid and unpaid positions. In 2006, he was appointed by the employers' and employees' organizations of Germany's construction sectorthe German Construction Confederation (ZDB), the Central Federation of the German Construction Industry (HDB), and IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (IG BAU) to mediate in a dispute over salary increases. In 2018, he again helped the two sides to agree on a pay hike of roughly 6 percent for more than 800,000 construction workers. In 2007, Clement was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at the Universität Essen-Duisburg's NRW School of Governance. In 2017, Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe appointed Clement as Special Commissioner for Germany's candidacy to become the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). He was also an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. In addition, he was a member of multiple corporate boards and non-profit organizations (below): Corporate boards Deutsche Wohnen AG, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2011) Peter Dussmann Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2011) Energy Consulting Group, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2009) Daldrup & Söhne AG, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2008) Citigroup, Member of the German Advisory Board (since 2006) M. DuMont Schauberg, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2006) Wolters Kluwer Deutschland, Chairman