Esther Silvana Koch-Mehrin (born 17 November 1970, in Wuppertal) is a former German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014. Early career In 1998, Koch-Mehrin founded her public affairs consultancy, Conseillé+Partners, together with Frank Schwalba-Hoth. Political career Koch-Mehrin rose to the ranks of the federal party executive under the leadership of FDP chairman Wolfgang Gerhardt in 1999. Ahead of the 2004 European elections, the new chairman Guido Westerwelle decided to make her the party’s top candidate and to run its campaign to re-enter the European Parliament for the first time in ten years; the FDP eventually won seven seats. In parliament, Koch-Mehrin was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets. She also was a substitute member of the Committee on Budgetary Control and a member of the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (including Libya). Until May 2011, Koch-Mehrin served as Vice Chairwoman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. In addition to her parliamentary work, Koch-Mehrin was a EU Representative to the Executive Board of W20, member of the Advisory Board of the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL), and a member of the Young Global Leaders Network of the World Economic Forum (WEF). In October 2012, Koch-Mehrin announced that she would not stand in the 2014 European elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. Controversy Plagiarism Like Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Jorgo Chatzimarkakis's doctoral theses, Koch-Mehrin's 2001 thesis, titled 'Historical Currency Unions between Economy and Politics', was analysed by VroniPlag using a crowd-source effort, and she was accused of plagiarism. As a consequence of this, on 11 May 2011 she resigned as chairperson of the FDP in the European Parliament and as vice-president of the European Parliament, arguing that she wanted to end the strain the investigation put on her family. She remained a member of the European Parliament, and continued to use the doctor title. On 15 June 2011 the University of Heidelberg officially rescinded her doctorate due to massive plagiarism. Only four days later she announced that she had become a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. This provoked a hefty reaction from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The DFG President, Matthias Kleiner, stated that further membership of Koch-Mehrin in the European Parliament